A flame-driven High-Temperature Reducing Jet (HTRJ) reactor has been developed by the Swihart research group that allows continuous one-step gas-phase (aerosol) synthesis of metal nanoparticles from metal salt precursors.
Flame technology is the most widely used technique to manufacture commercial nanoparticles and encompasses the major portion by value and volume of nanoparticles made in the gas phase. A flame-driven High-Temperature Reducing Jet (HTRJ) reactor has been developed in our group that allows continuous one-step gas-phase (aerosol) synthesis of metal nanoparticles from metal salt precursors. The key advantage of the HTRJ system over common flame-based aerosol synthesis methods is the separation of flame chemistry from particle formation chemistry which allows synthesis of non-oxide metal nanoparticles that can be reduced by H2 in the presence of H2O. Over the past years, we have made a group of multicomponent transition metal nanomaterials including Pd, Cu, Ag, Ni in the forms of nanopowders, films and nanoparticle inks. The nanomaterials are used for a variety of applications.