The single-nanosizing of a ceramics by a topdown method was demonstrated using a "wet planetary bead-milling" method, which is the combination of bead milling and planetary milling. By using the planetary bead-milling, single-nanoparticles (about 2 nm) of BaZr 0.9 Y 0.1 O 3¹¡ , which is one of the perovskite type oxides, was obtained with the combination of 0.05 mmº zirconia beads as pulverization media and ethanol as dispersion media.©2012 The Ceramic Society of Japan. All rights reserved.Key-words : Single-nanosizing, Perovskite oxide, Planetary bead-milling, Top-down method, Proton conducting oxide [Received October 4, 2011; Accepted October 6, 2011] It has been widely known that various characteristics of materials change drastically from those of the bulk when nanosized. This is primarily attributed to the quantum size effect: Nanosizing leads to the decrease in the degeneracy of electronic band and its structure returns to discrete condition. In addition, the surface area increases, and thus the surface properties become pronounced. As a result, the various unique properties are developed in nanosized materials. For example, fluorescence characteristic of CdSe significantly changes in response to the reduction of the particle size. 1)3) Some non magnetic materials such as Au show ferromagnetic property when nanosized.4) The sinterability of a material increases by the reduction of the particle size due to the increase in the surface free energy. 5) Superplasticity seen in a yttrium doped zirconia prepared through low temperature sintering of starting nano powder is another example of the benefit of ascendant surface properties. 6),7) Since the unique properties become more pronounced as the particle size becomes smaller, methods to prepare nano materials, especially those for the preparation of "singlenanometer" materials, are extremely attractive; spherical 2-nmradius particles with typical density of metal oxide (e.g., 5 g cm
¹3) must have an extremely high specific surface area (higher than 10000 m 2 g
¹1). However, the development of the preparation method for single-nano materials cannot be easily achieved.There are two different approaches for nanosizing: One is based on the topdown methods that prepare nano-materials by breaking down a bulk material and the other is based on the bottom-up methods that prepare nano-materials by building up in atomistic scale. The methods that have been succeeded in preparing nano materials are mostly based on the latter; the typical methods are the coprecipitation method, 8),9) the reverse micelle method, 10) the hot soap method, 2) the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, 11)13) the solgel method, 14)17) the salt assist spray pyrolysis (SASP) method, 18),19) etc. Especially, the single-nano particle could be obtained in the hot soap method and reverse micelle method.2),3),10) However, these bottom-up methods have restrictions in the choice of starting materials and/or preparation conditions. In addition, these methods have a difficulty in the application to co...