Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis (USP) starts with the formation of uniform aerosol droplets from a solution containing selected precursors that are subsequently carried by an appropriate (inert or reactive) gas into a simple tube furnace.  As the droplets pass through the reactor, solvent evaporates and the dissolved substances react, precipitate, or decompose to form product as uniform spherical powder carried by the gas stream.  A major advantage of USP is that each droplet and consequently each particle formed is subjected to the same reaction conditions, so that the chemical and phase composition of all the particles are the same.  The particles may be trapped in a liquid or alternatively may be used to coat a solid surface (i.e. essentially a nanoparticle analog to chemical vapor deposition).

However, in previous work all materials obtained by USP lay in the near one micron size region, ~ 0.2 – 2.0 mm. The Irilliant technology has broken through this critical barrier of USP and extended the range all the way to the synthesis of nanoparticles in the quantum confinement realm. One of the main differences between the traditional USP technique and its proprietary modification employed by Irilliant is that in our reaction mixture, we use high boiling point solvents with surfactants that stabilize the particles during their growth and chemical reactions. The temperature within the reactor is lower than the boiling point of the solvent, so the solvent does not evaporate and the synthesis reaction proceeds in small droplets of this high boiling point solvent. We call this method a chemical aerosol-flow synthesis or CAFS. The figure above depicts differences between traditional USP and CAFS methods.

Using CAFS techniques, Irilliant was able for the first time to synthesize Cadmium Sulfide (CdS) nanocolloids from water solutions and high quality Cadmium Selenide, Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) and Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles of different morphology from organic solvents.  Many other nanomaterials and nanocomposites have been produced in our facility.

Other patent pending manufacturing methods for the synthesis of nanomaterials are also being practiced

>>read more about the nanomaterials we make

Our technology has many advantages that will allow:

• The synthesis to proceed in isolated nanoscale reactors (i.e. liquid droplets) carried in a gas phase at controllable (high) temperatures.
• The reaction zone to be separate from the initial solution, which is kept at lower (or room) temperature.
• Nanocrystals to be obtained in any desired quantity with high quality and reproducibility.
• The resultant nanoparticles to be easily deposited on desired surfaces or collected at low temperatures in desired solvents.