Nanomaterials synthesis at atmospheric pressure using nanosecond discharges

David Z Pai (1, 2)

1 Ecole Centrale Paris
2 Graduate School of Frontier Sciences

The application of nanosecond discharges towards nanomaterials synthesis at atmospheric pressure is explored. First, various plasma sources are evaluated in terms of the energy used to include one atom into the nanomaterial, which is shown to depend strongly on the electron temperature. Because of their high average electron temperature, nanosecond discharges could be used to achieve nanofabrication at a lower energy cost, and therefore with better efficiency, than with other plasma sources at atmospheric pressure. Transient spark discharges and nanosecond repetitively pulsed (NRP) discharges are suggested as particularly useful examples of nanosecond discharges generated at high repetition frequency. Nanosecond discharges also generate fast heating and cooling rates that could be exploited to produce metastable nanomaterials.

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

David Z Pai. Nanomaterials synthesis at atmospheric pressure using nanosecond discharges. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 2011, 44 (17), pp.174024. ⟨10.1088/0022-3727/44/17/174024⟩. ⟨hal-00613281⟩