The Improvement and Upscaling of a Laser Chemical Vapor Pyrolysis Reactor

In this work, a new laser Chemical Vapor Pyrolysis (LaCVP) reactor is presented. The concepts behind the new reactor' s design aim to improve and scale up the production of powders compared to conventional used laser CVP systems. For these purposes, the reaction zone has been studied in relation to the nozzle and the laser beam geometry. As a result, a new reaction zone comprising a rectangular nozzle and rectangular laser beam has been developed. The new reactor, including the new reaction zone, has great flexibility towards different type of materials that can be produced. Moreover, the advanced design of the reactor allows flexibility towards the use of various types of equipment, such as, nozzles, hoods, sampling equipment, etc. First encouraging results of silicon synthesis using the new reactor are presented. The silicon nanoparticles were synthesized from silane (SiH4) precursor in a N2 atmosphere. The products have been characterized with TEM, XRD, TGA and FTIR analyses and compared with a commercial available one (Aldrich). The synthesized products show a narrow size distribution and small particle size, in comparison with the commercial material. Future work will include the further development of the system and investigation of the role of the experimental parameters on the product characteristics.