Bottom-Up, Wet Chemical Technique for the Continuous Synthesis of Inorganic Nanoparticles

Abstract

Continuous wet chemical approaches for the production of inorganic nanoparticles are important for large scale production of nanoparticles. Here we describe a bottom-up, wet chemical method applying a microjet reactor. This technique allows the separation between nucleation and growth in a continuous reactor environment. Zinc oxide (ZnO), magnetite (Fe3O4), as well as brushite (CaHPO4·2H2O), particles with a small particle size distribution can be obtained continuously by using the rapid mixing of two precursor solutions and the fast removal of the nuclei from the reaction environment. The final particles were characterized by FT-IR, TGA, DLS, XRD and SEM techniques. Systematic studies on the influence of the different process parameters, such as flow rate and process temperature, show that the particle size can be influenced. Zinc oxide was obtained with particle sizes between 44 nm and 102 nm. The obtained magnetite particles have particle sizes in the range of 46 nm to 132 nm. Brushite behaves differently; the obtained particles were shaped like small plates with edge lengths between 100 nm and 500 nm.