Curved wall-jet burner for synthesizing titania and silica nanoparticles

Abstract

A novel curved wall-jet (CWJ) burner was designed for flame synthesis, by injecting precursors through a center tube and by supplying fuel/air mixtures as an annular-inward jet for rapid mixing of the precursors in the reaction zone. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) and silicon dioxide (SiO2) nanoparticles were produced in ethylene (C2H4)/air premixed flames using titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) and hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) as the precursors, respectively. Particle image velocimetry measurements confirmed that the precursors can be injected into the flames without appreciably affecting flow structure. The nanoparticles were characterized using X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. In the case of TiO2, the phase of nanoparticles could be controlled by adjusting the equivalence ratio, while the particle size was dependent on the precursor loading rate and the flame temperature. The synthesized TiO2 nanoparticles exhibited high crystallinity and the anatase phase was dominant at high equivalence ratios (ϕ>1.3). In the case of SiO2, the particle size could be controlled from 11 to 18nm by adjusting the precursor loading rate.