Homogeneous coating of aerosol-nanoparticles in a cold plasma under atmospheric pressure

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Wolfgang Maus-Friedrichs; Professor Dr. Alfred Weber
• Subject Area: Mechanical Process Engineering
• Term: from 2014 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 250830602

TiO2 nanoparticles are in manifold use for example in sunscreens, in wastewater purification or in self-cleaning coatings. Quite a number of these applications require a particle coating for example from technical or medical reasons. Therefore, the cladding of TiO2 particles with SiO2 is of technological relevance. Unfortunately, the implementation of the coatings precursors into the process chain is not trivial and does mostly require high temperatures. Coating steps of this kind are yet investigated systematically.Within this project TiO2 nanoparticles shall be cladded with SiO2 covers of tunable thicknesses. This will be done in a two-step aerosol reactor with integrated reactive cold plasmas (Dielectric Barrier Discharge-DBD). Beside the highly promising technical realization this two-step reactor allows for the investigations of all processes and reactions in every process step. Up to now the cladding of nanoparticles applying DBDs in aerosol reactors is barely investigated. Here we combine highly sophisticated surface analytical techniques with the continuous processes within the reactor. It is the aim of this project to elucidate the fundamental mechanisms of interface and coating formation and their feedback onto the coating processes inside the reactor.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants