Mass-Producing Nanoparticles

Feb-29-16 Researchers have created a technique for mass producing nanomaterials that is both less expensive and less time-consuming.

According to one of the lead reserachers on the project, Noah Malmstadt of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, it is the process of making nanoparticles that makes them so expensive. The new technique helps reduce the cost associated with their manufacture by using a network of four 3D-printed tubes just 250 micrometers in diameter that are arranged in parallel. As a combination of two non-mixing fluids are forced through the tubes, they create tiny droplets that function as “micro-scale chemical reactors” where materials are combined to generate nanoparticles, with millions being created able to perform the same reaction.

This technique has been attempted before, but the team overcame previous obstacles by designing the array so that the system is not affected by pressure changes and so that the particles are all created in a uniform size.

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[NATURE.COM]

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