A Revolution in Nanopowders

摘要

Advanced Nano Technologies (ANT), headquartered in Welshpool (Western Australia), is a newly formed venture between Advanced Powder Technology Pty Ltd (Australia) and Samsung Corning Co Ltd (Korea). ANT combines APT's research strength and intellectual property with Samsung Corning's industrial processing experience and market power. The key goal of this venture is to commercialise the MCP~TM technology globally, making nanotechnology an economic reality by providing a low-cost foundation for a rapidly growing market. The MCP~TM technology was developed at the Research Centre for Advanced Materials and Mineral Processing at the University of Western Australia. This technology differs to conventional nanopowder producing technologies in that the particles are grown in the solid state at low temperatures through a bottom-up process. The technology is a patented, low-cost method of mechano-chemically processing a wide range of high-quality nanopowders using a conventional ball mill. This is not lust a grinding process, instead, chemical reactions are mechanically activated at the nanoscale. To produce nanoparticles of a specific material, suitable industrial standard metal salt precursors are chosen so that the mechano-chemical reaction causes nanoparticles to form completely within a diluent phase. Unlike other processes, this ensures that completely separated nanoparticles are formed. The final step is to remove the diluent. The result is individual, non-agglomerated particles with a composition and size meeting the customer's requirements.