Thermal Plasma Processes
and Nanomaterial Preparation
C. Balasubramanian
Abstract Plasma here refers to the fourth state of matter which has wide-ranging
applications—right from industrial to biomedical. A word of caution: The term “plasma” should not be mixed up with the blood “plasma”—which is entirely different
from the fourth state of matter—the subject area of this chapter. The interaction of
this plasma—fourth state of matter—with the first (and to some extent the second
state as well) state of matter is an area that brings about vast application potential.
Primarily the energy content in a plasma state is orders of magnitude higher than
the energy content of the other three states of matter. This large energy content is
what is used for various applications mentioned above. This chapter contains in brief
the basics of plasmas, types of plasma and nanoscience, and then describes in detail
how plasmas can be used for various material processing—especially preparation of
nanomaterials. Care has been taken to provide more experimental details in a simple flowing language. Images (mostly related to the author’s own work) have been
included for better clarity and easy understanding.
1 Nanoscience and Nanomaterials
This relatively new branch of science, though predicted by Richard Feynman towards
the fag end of 1950s, actually started evolving only in 1980s after the invention of the
scanning tunnelling microscope (STM)—a powerful probe microscope with which
atomic scale features could be studied.
Nanoscience is the science of behaviour of materials when its size is reduced to
a scale of within few tens of nanometres. It is observed that the behaviour and properties of materials change drastically from its bulk counterpart when the material
is reduced in size. For example, materials like gold which is inert in its bulk form
become highly reactive when reduced to nanometre size; materials like iron which
are stable at bulk form become explosive when reduced to nanosize. The branch
of nanoscience deals with the understanding of these drastic changes. The drastic
C. Balasubramanian (B)
Atmospheric Plasma Division, Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar, India
e-mail: balac@ipr.res.in
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
L. Ledwani and J. S. Sangwai (eds.), Nanotechnology for Energy and Environmental
Engineering, Green Energy and Technology,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33774-2_3
73
and Nanomaterial Preparation
C. Balasubramanian
Abstract Plasma here refers to the fourth state of matter which has wide-ranging
applications—right from industrial to biomedical. A word of caution: The term “plasma” should not be mixed up with the blood “plasma”—which is entirely different
from the fourth state of matter—the subject area of this chapter. The interaction of
this plasma—fourth state of matter—with the first (and to some extent the second
state as well) state of matter is an area that brings about vast application potential.
Primarily the energy content in a plasma state is orders of magnitude higher than
the energy content of the other three states of matter. This large energy content is
what is used for various applications mentioned above. This chapter contains in brief
the basics of plasmas, types of plasma and nanoscience, and then describes in detail
how plasmas can be used for various material processing—especially preparation of
nanomaterials. Care has been taken to provide more experimental details in a simple flowing language. Images (mostly related to the author’s own work) have been
included for better clarity and easy understanding.
1 Nanoscience and Nanomaterials
This relatively new branch of science, though predicted by Richard Feynman towards
the fag end of 1950s, actually started evolving only in 1980s after the invention of the
scanning tunnelling microscope (STM)—a powerful probe microscope with which
atomic scale features could be studied.
Nanoscience is the science of behaviour of materials when its size is reduced to
a scale of within few tens of nanometres. It is observed that the behaviour and properties of materials change drastically from its bulk counterpart when the material
is reduced in size. For example, materials like gold which is inert in its bulk form
become highly reactive when reduced to nanometre size; materials like iron which
are stable at bulk form become explosive when reduced to nanosize. The branch
of nanoscience deals with the understanding of these drastic changes. The drastic
C. Balasubramanian (B)
Atmospheric Plasma Division, Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar, India
e-mail: balac@ipr.res.in
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
L. Ledwani and J. S. Sangwai (eds.), Nanotechnology for Energy and Environmental
Engineering, Green Energy and Technology,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33774-2_3
73