Continuous batch synthesis with atmospheric-pressure microwave plasmas

Abstract

Plasmas under atmospheric pressure offer a high-temperature environment for material synthesis, but electrode ablation compromises purity. Here, we introduce an atmospheric-pressure microwave plasma (AMP) operated without electrodes to overcome the existing limitations in pure material synthesis. The distribution of the electrostatic field intensity inside a waveguide during AMP excitation was examined via electrostatic field simulations. The lateral and radial gas temperature distributions were also studied using optical emission spectroscopy. The AMP exhibited a uniform ultrahigh temperature (9,000 K), a large volume (102-104 cm3), and a response time on the millisecond level. AMP efficiently synthesized silicon nanoparticles, graphene, and graphene@Si-Fe core-shell nanoparticles within tens of milliseconds, ensuring purity and size control. We propose the "heat impulse" metric for evaluating the plasma characteristics (n a, T g, and t) in material synthesis, extended to other high-temperature plasmas. AMP is compact, cost-effective, and easy to assemble, promising for eco-friendly mass production of pure materials.