Generation of copper, nickel, and CuNi alloy nanoparticles by spark discharge

Synthesis of SiOC:H nanoparticles by electrical discharge in hexamethyldisilazane and water

“…Then, we collected the dark‐tan solution using a syringe and dried it in air at room temperature, which yielded a compact off‐white solid material (Figure , time = 12 h). Note that the mass of the synthesized material was around 84 mg after 5 min, suggesting that the synthesis was highly efficient as compared with other plasma‐based techniques . As the product can be suspended in liquid or obtained as powder, the synthesized nanomaterial can be easily used for another process.…”

“…The previously reported nanoparticle production rate using in‐liquid plasma‐based techniques is relatively high (∼20 mg h −1 ) compared with that of gas‐phase plasma techniques (∼0.1 mg h −1 by RF atmospheric plasma and ∼3 mg h −1 by spark discharge). There is clearly room for further increases in process efficiencies.…”

On the plasma and electrode erosion processes in spark discharge nanoparticle generators

“…Although the design of the SDG is now commercially available [18], and used by several groups [19][20][21][22][23][24][25], the very fundamentals of the processes leading to particle formation is not yet fully understood. One reason for this knowledge gap lies in the difficulty of investigating the stages of the inherently multi scale nanoparticle formation process, especially its initial, early phase.…”

“…The term erosion or ablation is used partly because the exact process of material removal from the electrode is not fully explored. The surface of the electrodes are heated at the so called "hot spots" where the spark channel interacts with the electrode surfaces and hence the eroded material of the electrodes forms a vapor plume [17,24,46,78]. In addition to this, ions of the carrier gas, as well as those of the anode and the cathode bombard the electrodes that may lead to further removal of electrode material [79].…”

“…This suggests that evaporation might be the dominant mechanism of material removal. The evaporation of the electrode material in an SDG is usually described by the simple model assuming a single tiny spot created by the spark plasma channel [17,24,46,77]. By calculating the energy balance, i.e.…”