Fabrication and applications of nanoparticles

Abstract

Nanomaterials have become remarkably important in the last few decades due to their unique characteristics induced from nanoscale dimensions in comparison with bulk materials Several methods of synthesis of these nanoparticles are divided into two groups The first one is liquid phase method which perform chemical synthesis in solvents However the solution is highly sensitive and not stable with the tendency of easy agglomeration of colloid nanoparticles even in the presence of surfactant or ligands Once nanoparticles are agglomerated the time- and energy-consuming mechanical milling process taking several days is required to separate the nanoparticles The other one is gas phase plasma synthesis which produce nanoparticles by homogeneous nucleation and subsequent growth through high temperature gas phase reaction By controlling the reaction variables such as the concentration of monomer the gas compositions of plasma the temperature of plasma etc to avoid condensation and coagulation well-separated nanoparticles can be synthesized The widespread commercial applications of nanoparticles require the establishment of industrial systems for the large scale fast synthesis of nanomaterials at a reasonable cost One of the most challenging problems in synthesis will be the controlled generation of monodispersed nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution The object is to investigate the nanopowder production technology and the surface simultaneously treatment with organic molecules at the nanopowder surface to prevent the particle agglomerations These manufacture technology for the surface modified SiO2 nanopowder with narrow particle size distribution will be established to fabricate nanoparticles with special properties These silica nanopowders have many potential applications such as the additives of polymer the organic-inorganic nanocomposites anti-reflective coatings optical hard coatings anti-smudge coatings etc

Date of Award	2018 Jul 24
Original language	English
Supervisor	Franklin Chau-Nan Hong (Supervisor)