Electrothermal-chemical synthesis of nanocrystalline aluminum nitride using a metal vapor pulsed plasma jet

A relatively new process, electrothermal-chemical (ETC) synthesis, is propo sed and tested for synthesizing nanocrystalline aluminum nitride (AIN) and aluminum powders. The ETC synthesis employed a plasma gun especially adapte d for material synthesis. The plasma gun is powered by high magnitude curre nt pulse (100 kA flowing for 1.2 ms) and produces pulsed, high-velocity met al vapor plasma jets. The pulsed plasma jet is directed into a reaction cha mber which is filled with room temperature atmospheric pressure nitrogen (N -2) or helium (He) gas reacting with the metal vapor plasma jet. Transmissi on electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction have been applied to character ize the synthesized materials and confirmed that the material contained nan ocrystalline aluminum (AI) and AIN whose particle size ranging 30-120 mn.