Chemical Aerosol Engineering as a Novel Tool for Material Science: From Oxides to Salt and Metal Nanoparticles

摘要

Aerosol nanotechnology has rapidly evolved in the past years. This fascinating technology has resulted in the development of functional nanomaterials providing novel solutions in industrial applications. The extensive research on the physical understanding of gas phase processes has strongly contributed to the present industrial use of single and mixed oxides and the design of industrial aerosol reactors. Recent advances have shown that chemical aerosol engineering can be established on the interface between classical aerosol science and chemical engineering. The emerging new methods give access to a much broader class of functional materials including salt and metal nanoparticles. The latter implies that aerosol production units can now be considered as chemical reactors. The incorporation of thermodynamic considerations and chemical kinetics in the modelling of gas phase processes will further boost the development of aerosol engineering and will provide deeper understanding of the fundamentals of particle formation mechanisms. This will ultimately enable access to new multi-component materials with various structures or morphologies and the development of more sustainable, energy efficient gas phase processes.