Plasma Microreactors: a Manufacturing Platform for Nanoscale Metal Oxides
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Ulster
Department Name: School of Engineering
Abstract
Transition metal oxides (TMOs) are an extraordinary class of materials that have found wide applicability for a number of century-defining technologies (e.g. flat-panel display, capacitors and energy storage) mainly due to their dielectric properties and facilitated by chemical inertness. TMOs are also conceptually simple materials with crucially important properties, they can be formed by low-cost and naturally abundant metals in combination with oxygen, therefore offering commercially attractive materials solutions. Recently, TMOs have seen a surge in application demand and research interest, which revealed their fundamental complexity and yet-to-discover application opportunities. Doping, defect engineering, quantum confinement and extending to ternary or high entropy oxides can lead to new or improved properties and can create disruptive materials. However, to achieve a step change in application performance, manufacturing precision is required at scale, which motivates the production of TMOs materials with ever increasing precision as well as the necessity to establish scalable manufacturing processes. This project will deliver a platform to synthesize TMOs materials with nanoscale precision (down to sub-10 nm scales) and atomically controlled chemical composition. A cold microplasma reactor operated at atmospheric pressure is at the core of this manufacturing technology platform which relies on the most recent 21st century plasma technology developments. The synthesis of TMOs is carried out through the interactions of a cold atmospheric pressure microplasma with a solid metal feedstock in an oxygen-containing gas, contributing to reduce waste and leading to a sustainable, zero-loss and 'greener' manufacturing technology.
Organisations
- University of Ulster (Lead Research Organisation)
- QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY BELFAST (Collaboration)
- National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (Project Partner)
- Queen's University Belfast (Project Partner)
- Czech Technical University in Prague (Project Partner)
- Cefla (Italy) (Project Partner)
- Brunel University London (Project Partner)
- Omicron NanoTechnology GmbH (Project Partner)
- National Research Council (Project Partner)
Publications
Benedet M
(2023)
Controllable Anchoring of Graphitic Carbon Nitride on MnO 2 Nanoarchitectures for Oxygen Evolution Electrocatalysis
in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
Benedet M
(2023)
XPS investigation of MnO2 deposits functionalized with graphitic carbon nitride
in Surface Science Spectra
Khalid H
(2022)
Rapid Plasma Exsolution from an A-site Deficient Perovskite Oxide at Room Temperature
in Advanced Energy Materials
Moghaieb H
(2023)
Efficient solar-thermal energy conversion with surfactant-free Cu-oxide nanofluids
in Nano Energy
Moghaieb HS
(2023)
Nanofluids for Direct-Absorption Solar Collectors-DASCs: A Review on Recent Progress and Future Perspectives.
in Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland)
Description | Newton International Fellowships |
Amount | £131,250 (GBP) |
Funding ID | NIF\R1\221880 |
Organisation | The Royal Society |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2023 |
End | 03/2025 |
Description | Queen's University Belfast |
Organisation | Queen's University Belfast |
Department | School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We have collaborated with exchange of staff/students and shared expertise and facilities |
Collaborator Contribution | We have collaborated with exchange of staff/students and shared expertise and facilities |
Impact | Zhang R-C, Sun D, Zhang R, Lin W-F, Macias-Montero M, Patel J, Askari S, McDonald C, Mariotti D, Maguire P "Gold nanoparticle-polymer nanocomposites synthesized by room temperature atmospheric pressure plasma and their potential for fuel cell electrocatalytic Application" Scientific Reports 7 (2017) 46682 Nolan H, Sun D, Falzon BG, Chakrabarti S, Padmanaban DB, Maguire P, Mariotti D, Yu T, Jones D, Andrews G, Sun D "Metal nanoparticle-hydrogel nanocomposites for biomedical applications - An atmospheric pressure plasma synthesis approach" Plasma Processes and Polymers 15 (2018) 1800112 Sun D, McLaughlan J, Zhang L, Falzon BG, Mariotti D, Maguire P, Sun D "Atmospheric Pressure Plasma-Synthesized Gold Nanoparticle/ Carbon Nanotube Hybrids for Photothermal Conversion" Langmuir 35 (2019) 4577 Nolan H, Sun D, Falzon BG, Maguire P, Mariotti D, Zhang L, Sun D "Thermoresponsive nanocomposites incorporating microplasma synthesized magnetic nanoparticles-Synthesis and potential Applications" Plasma Processes and Polymers 16 (2019) 1800128 Sun D, Tang M, Zhang L, Falzon BG, Padmanaban DB, Mariotti D, Maguire P, Heping X, Chen M, Sun D "Microplasma assisted synthesis of gold nanoparticle/graphene oxide nanocomposites and their potential application in SERS sensing" Nanotechnology 30 (2019) 455603 Sun D, Turner J, Jiang N, Zhu S, Zhang L, Falzon BG, McCoy CP, Maguire P, Mariotti D, Sun D "Atmospheric pressure microplasma for antibacterial silver nanoparticle/ chitosan nanocomposites with tailored properties" Composites Science and Technology 186 (2020) 107911 Su Z, Sun D, Zhang L, He M, Jiang Y, Millar B, Douglas P, Mariotti D, Maguire P, Sun D "Chitosan/Silver Nanoparticle/Graphene Oxide Nanocomposites with Multi-Drug Release, Antimicrobial, and Photothermal Conversion Functions" Materials 14 (2021) 2351 Padmanaban DB, McGlynn R, Byrne E, Velusamy T, Swadzba-Kwasny M, Maguire P, Mariotti D "Understanding plasma-ethanol non-equilibrium electrochemistry during the synthesis of metal oxide quantum dots" Green Chemistry 23 (2021) 3983 Moghaieb HS, Padmanaban DB, Kumar P, Haq AU, Maddi C, McGlynn R, Arredondo M, Singh H, Maguire P, Mariotti D "Efficient solar-thermal energy conversion with surfactant-free Cu-oxide nanofluids" Nano Energy 108 (2023) 108112 Di Luca M, Hoskins C, Corduas F, Onchuru R, Oluwasanmi A, Mariotti D, Conti B, Lamprou DA "3D printed biodegradable multifunctional implants for effective breast cancer treatment" International Journal of Pharmaceutics 629 (2022) 122363 Scott JJR, Casals B, Luo K-F, Haq A, Mariotti D, Salje EKH, Arredondo M "Avalanche criticality in LaAlO3 and the effect of aspect ratio" Scientific Reports 12 (2022) 14818 Corduas F, Mathew E, McGlynn R, Mariotti D, Lamprou DA, Mancuso E "Melt-extrusion 3D printing of resorbable levofloxacin-loaded meshes: Emerging strategy for urogynaecological applications" Materials Science & Engineering C 131 (2021) 112523 |
Start Year | 2015 |