Aerosol spray pyrolysis & solution phase synthesis of nanostructures

This dissertation focuses on the synthesis of nanomaterials by both solution phase and gas phase methods. By the solution phase method, we demonstrate the synthesis of Au/CdS binary hybrid nanoparticles and the Au-induced growth of CdS nanorods. At higher reaction temperature, extremely uniform CdS nanorods were obtained. The size of the Au seed nanoparticles has an important influence on the length and diameter of the nanorods. In addition, preparation of peanut-like FePt-CdS hybrid nanoparticles by spontaneous epitaxial nucleation and growth of CdS onto FePt-seed nanoparticles in high-temperature organic solution is reported. The FePt-CdS hybrid nanoparticles reported here are an example of a bifunctional nanomaterial that combines size-dependent magnetic and optical properties. In the gas phase method, a spray pyrolysis aerosol synthesis method was used to produce tellurium dioxide nanoparticles and zinc sulfide nanoparticles. Tellurite glasses (amorphous TeO2 based materials) have two useful optical properties, high refractive index and high optical nonlinearity, that make them attractive for a range of applications. In the work presented here, TeO2 nanoparticles were prepared by spray pyrolysis of an aqueous solution of telluric acid, Te(OH)6. This laboratory-scale process is capable of producing up to 80 mg/hr of amorphous TeO2-nanoparticles with primary particle diameters from 10 to 40 nm, and allows their synthesis in significant quantities from an inexpensive and environmentally friendly precursor. Furthermore, both Er3+ doped and Er3+ and Yb3+ co-doped tellurium dioxide nanoparticles were synthesized by spray pyrolysis of an aqueous mixture of telluric acid with erbium/ytterbium salts, which exhibit the infrared to green visible upconversion phenomena. ZnS nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by spray pyrolysis using zinc diethyldithiocarbamate as a single-source precursor. The home-built scanning mobility particle spectrometer (SMPS) is a useful tool for online measurement of the as-produced nanoparticle size distribution in the gas phase. These SMPS results show clearly the transition of precursor aerosol from liquid to vapor phase and that nanoparticle production in the reactor occurs via gas-to-particle conversion. Applicable characterization methods were employed to characterize and to investigate the optical properties of the various materials described in this dissertation.