Synthesis of Blue Luminescent Si Nanoparticles Using Atmospheric-Pressure Microdischarges

Abstract

Silicon nanoparticles are synthesized from a mixture of argon/silane in a continuous flow atmospheric-pressure microdischarge reactor. Particles nucleate and grow to a few nanometers (1−3 nm) in diameter before their growth is abruptly terminated in the short residence time microreactor. Narrow size distributions are obtained as inferred from size classification and imaging. As-grown Si nanoparticles collected in solution exhibit room-temperature photoluminescence that peaks at 420 nm with a quantum efficiency of 30%; the emission is stable for months in ambient air.

Formation of nanodiamonds at near-ambient conditions via microplasma dissociation of ethanol vapour

“…This method has been previously applied to the synthesis of silicon nanoparticles with diameters o5 nm (ref. 17). To nucleate and grow carbon nanoparticles, mixtures of Ar and H 2 gas and ethanol vapour were continuously introduced and dissociated in the microplasma at atmospheric pressure and near-ambient neutral gas temperature ( Supplementary Fig.…”

Current status of microplasma research

“…For examples: (i) spherical graphite particles and carbon nano-structures (nano-tubes, nano-onions, etc.) were produced by Terashima et al using an ICP microplasma jet driven by a UHF source; [48] (ii) recrystalization of Si and construction of nano-cones were tested by Shirai et al using an RF driven micro-torch; [14,49] and (c) Si nano-particles of about 10 nm diameter with a small dispersion, which emit photo-luminescence in the blue region, were synthesized by Giapis et al using a HC-type plasma jet [50].…”

Optical Properties of Nanostructured Silicon

“…The other methods to produce porous silicon-related nanostructures include reactive sputtering [17], solgel techniques [18], SiO 2 implantation [19], selfassembly [20], growth in inverse micelles [21,22], laser ablation [23], thermal annealing [24][25][26], thermal vaporization [27,28], decomposition of silanes [29][30][31][32][33], solution synthesis [34][35][36], hybrid techniques [37], and plasma processing [38][39][40].…”