An aerosol-based route to nanostructured powders synthesis in liquids

An alternative technique for synthesizing nanostructured powders in liquid solutions has been developed. The technique combines generation of charged aerosols via electrospray with reductive precipitation reactions in liquids. Electrospray of liquids is carried out to produce micrometric, nearly mono-dispersed airborne droplets from a precursor solution. The droplets, which are spatially separated due to electrostatic repulsion, are collected in a bath containing a reductive solution. The effect of some process parameters on the resulting material texture has been studied. Tin particles produced from tin chloride solutions are regarded as a model here, but it is stressed that this approach can be considered as a general method to synthesize many other metallic-like materials, such as alloys and intermetallics. Hence, the large variety of materials that can be produced in this way could find several relevant applications in different technological fields.