Russian physicists have presented their new development to the public. A group of scientists at the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences have invented a device that serves as a means of producing nanopowder containing oxides of carbon and of various metals. Such nanopowders can be used to make filters, pigment bases, fabrics with an antibacterial action and printing materials.
The lead specialist is Mishik Kazaryan, Doctor of Physical Sciences. The scientists succeeded in designing and building a device for producing an acousto-plasma discharge in a liquid. The phenomenon is the formation of an electric discharge of high power. Under the action of external ultrasonic “irradiation” the properties of the discharge plasma change substantially. As a result we observe an accelerated transport of electron particles.
A discharge can be pictured as a transport of charged particles. The process takes place between electrodes immersed in a liquid, and this affects the type of the particle carriers. The only possible carriers are the metal ions that belong to the material of the electrodes themselves. Nanoparticles form out of this metal and settle in the liquid as the process goes on. According to Nikolai Bulychev, a leading researcher at the Lebedev Physical Institute, this method is the key to obtaining the nanopowder. By using a particular metal one can make electrodes and in the end obtain nanoparticles of its oxide.
The size of such particles is extremely small. Depending on the metal it can be as much as 100-250 nanometres, and with purified metals as little as 5-7 nanometres. The nanoparticles obtained carry a large number of uncompensated chemical bonds on their surface, which lets them interact with various chemical substances and enter into reactions with great activity
The scientists see uses for such nanoparticles on an enormous scale: from adding zinc oxide nanoparticles to textiles for the production of antibacterial fabrics, to making devices with a particular light-emitting property