PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF COMPACTS FROM NANOSTRUCTURED POWDER PRODUCED IN AN AEROSOL FLOW CONDENSER

The inert gas condensation process (IGC) used for the production of na nostructured materials has a number of limitations. To overcome these difficulties an aerosol flow condenser (AFC) was built. This paper foc uses on the production of nanostructured palladium compacts prepared f rom powders generated with the AFC as well as on the characterization of these compacts. The smallest average grain size of the compacts obt ained was 4.3 nm. This represents a reduction of approximately 70% com pared to the IGC process. While the density of the compacts was compar able to compacts produced by IGC, the light element (H, N, O) impurity content scaled with the surface-to-volume ratio. (C) 1998 Elsevier Sc ience S.A. All rights reserved.