AVS 50th International Symposium
    Plasma Science and Technology Wednesday Sessions
       Session PS1-WeM

Paper PS1-WeM3
Reactive Gas Condensation of Aluminum Nitride Nanoparticles

Wednesday, November 5, 2003, 9:00 am, Room 314

Session: Plasma Processing of Nanostructures and Nanomaterials
Presenter: C. Baker, University of Delaware
Authors: C. Baker, University of Delaware
A. Ceylan, University of Delaware
S.I. Shah, University of Delaware
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AlN nanoparticles were synthesized using Reactive Gas Condensation (RGC) technique in which a gas mixture of NH3 and N2 was used for the nitridation of aluminum vapors that were obtained by resistive evaporation of Al wire. NH3 served as the reactive gas while N2 served as both a carrier gas and a source for particle condensation. The process was carried out at a pressure range of 50 - 100 Torr in order to facilitate the condensation. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron (XPS) analysis revealed that the samples deposited with more than 10% NH3 in N2 were composed entirely of hexagonal AlN nanoparticles. The particles were single crystal, as determined by electron diffraction in transmission electron microscopy. The particle size was controlled by varying the pressure of the gas mixture for high relative concentrations of NH3. AlN nanoparticles were dispersed in various liquids to enhance the fluid thermal conductivity. Results will be presented to show that the thermal conductivity of the liquid was considerably increased with the addition of minimal amount of AlN nanoparticles.