Nanostructures, Nanoparticles, and 2D Materials from Nonthermal Plasmas

Abstract

The bottom-up synthesis of thin films, nanostructures, and nanoparticles from nonthermal plasmas has been limited largely to both gas-phase and highly-volatile carbon precursors. This has stymied the application of nonthermal plasmas to several new types of materials as there are often no gas-phase or highly volatile precursors that exist for their synthesis. The sublimation of solid and low volatility liquid precursors are used here to expand the realm of new materials towards sulfide Van der Waals 2D materials, high surface area nitride nanostructured plasmonic materials, nitrogen-doped oxide nanoparticles, and crystalline metal aluminum nanoparticles. Plasmonic photodetectors and photocatalytic nanoparticles are demonstrated herein to show the utility of some of the as produced materials. Moreover, traditional nanoparticle reactor limitations such as metallic film deposition between the exciting electrode and the plasma are discussed and new reactors are developed to overcome such limitations. In addition, parameters such as the location of the powered electrode and the location of the gas inlets relative to one another are critical to the production of better materials and examples will be demonstrated herein.