Spark Ablation: Building Blocks for Nanotechnology

Spark ablation has been used worldwide for decades. However, in many fields, the special properties of nanoparticles, which come into play especially for sizes <20 nm, are just beginning to be exploited. The technique offers unprecedented flexibility regarding composition and size, and revolutions in the domains of catalysis and sensor technology, and more are to be expected. This book is the first review of spark ablation as a unique, scalable source of building blocks for nanotechnology and a powerful tool to promote this development. The introductory chapters give an overview of the technological fields that can exploit size effects, and explain the process of spark ablation in the gas phase, as well as principles of immobilizing particles to create novel products and materials. Fundamentals of the spark ablation process are then discussed, in addition to the characteristics of the particles formed. The rest of the book deals with a selection of application fields that profit from the spark ablation source from the perspective of research. With the authors’ many years of experience in spark ablation and its applications, all the chapters complement one another and contain numerous cross-references in order to enable the reader to obtain a complete picture of the subject.