Large Scale Production of Nanoparticles by Laser Pyrolysis

Laser pyrolysis is a very suitable gas-phase process for the synthesis of a wide range of nanoparticles at laboratory scale. The principle of the method is based on the decomposition of gaseous or liquid reactants by a high power CO2 laser followed by a quenching effect. The literature reports the possibility to produce carbides, nitrides, oxides, metals and composites nanoparticles by this process. This paper reports a study of the effect of the laser intensity (using an innovative optical system) and of the gas flow rates on the characteristics (size and structure) of silicon carbide (SiC) nanoparticles produced at pilot scale (up to 1.13 kg/h) by using a mixture of silane (SiH4) and acetylene (C2H2). It has been shown that the decrease of the gas flow rate favors the increase of the mean grain size of the particles and that the increase of the laser intensity seems to provoke an increase of the mean crystal size and/or crystal number.