PRODUCTION OF CONTACT-FREE NANOPARTICLES BY AEROSOL PROCESS - DEPENDENCE OF PARTICLE-SIZE ON GAS-PRESSURE

Experiments were made to determine the dependence of the size of conta ct-free nanoparticles produced by aerosol process on gas pressure. The particles were collected as contact-free dispesoids in hexane with a cationic surfactant, and the geometric mean sizes were below 10 nm in diameter, It was found that the size increased linearly as the pressur e was raised from 0.04 to 1.43 kPa for Ag, Bi, Cu, and Te. Similar slo pes were obtained for the linear function between size and gas pressur e except for Te. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.