PLASMA SYNTHESIS: A NEXT-GENERATION APPROACH TO METAL NANOPARTICLE ENGINEERING

Abstract

Owing to distinct properties and diverse applications, improvement in synthesis strategies of metal nanoparticles emerged as a field of prime interest in material science. There are a number of potential synthesis techniques for the purpose but synthesis of metal nanoparticles using plasma processes has been a highly resourceful route. The synthesis parameters such as discharge current, discharge voltage, discharge time, precursor concentration, presence and absence of surfactant material, rate of feeding gas, temperature and stirring etc. provide liberty to control the shape and size as well as quality of metal nanoparticles. This review is dedicated to highlight the technological and process development, issues involved and future challenges involved in plasma synthesis along with survey of reported literature on preparation of metal nanoparticles. The description on the most commonly used techniques and set-up for the synthesis of metal nanoparticles and mechanism of particle formation is given.