Precisely controlled fabrication, manipulation and in-situ analysis of Cu based nanoparticles

Abstract

The increasing demand for nanostructured materials is mainly motivated by their key role in a wide variety of technologically relevant fields such as biomedicine, green sustainable energy or catalysis. We have succeeded to scale-up a type of gas aggregation source, called a multiple ion cluster source, for the generation of complex, ultra-pure nanoparticles made of different materials. The high production rates achieved (tens of g/day) for this kind of gas aggregation sources, and the inherent ability to control the structure of the nanoparticles in a controlled environment, make this equipment appealing for industrial purposes, a highly coveted aspect since the introduction of this type of sources. Furthermore, our innovative UHV experimental station also includes in-flight manipulation and processing capabilities by annealing, acceleration, or interaction with background gases along with in-situ characterization of the clusters and nanoparticles fabricated. As an example to demonstrate some of the capabilities of this new equipment, herein we present the fabrication of copper nanoparticles and their processing, including the controlled oxidation (from Cu0 to CuO through Cu2O, and their mixtures) at different stages in the machine.

Prevalence of non-aromatic carbonaceous molecules in the inner regions of circumstellar envelopes

“…Our experimental set-up, called Stardust 21 , is an UHV machine specifically conceived to simulate, with a high level of control, the complex conditions of stardust formation and processing in the environment of evolved stars. It uses UHV technology to avoid the high reactivity expected to atmospheric and residual gases of the formed carbon nanostructures 23 .…”

“…In this work, using a specifically designed ultra-high vacuum (UHV) experimental setup 21 we investigate the basic carbonaceous chemistry taking place in the dust formation region of CSEs. Our approach produces carbon dust seeds using exclusively gas-phase C atoms and molecular hydrogen in a ratio close to that in the atmospheres of AGB stars without the requirement for introducing ad hoc C-bearing molecular precursors, such as acetylene or methane.…”

Spontaneous in-flight assembly of magnetic nanoparticles into macroscopic chains

“…The growing activity in this field has also stimulated the development of methods for the production of NPs and clusters with precise control of size, shape, and composition. In this regard, gas aggregation sources, [10][11][12] which allow obtaining core/shell structured nanoparticles 6,10 easily, were recently modified to achieve also high production rates 13 as in the case of wet chemistry synthesis techniques. Nevertheless, these latter methods have limitations in terms of the simplicity of the process, typically involving several processing steps, surface contamination and size distribution.…”

Electrocatalytic Behavior of PtCu Clusters Produced by Nanoparticle Beam Deposition

“…A severe limitation is the low amount of material produced, but a number of efforts have been recently devoted to scaling up the production rate in order to meet industrial research requirements. 26 , 42 , 43 This method has proved to be successful for a number of application studies from generating advanced model catalysts for different chemical reactions to creating binding sites for protein molecules on biochips. 22 , 23 PtCu catalysts produced by CBD were the subject of a recent study by a number of the current authors focusing on gas phase acetylene semihydrogenation.…”