Synthesis of SiO2 Nanoparticles in RF Plasma Reactors: Effect of Feed Rate and Quench Gas Injection

Nanoparticles of SiO2 have been produced in an inductively coupled thermal plasma reactor. The resulting nanoparticles were characterized based on their morphology and size distribution. Scanning electron microscopy, nitrogen absorption (BET method), laser diffractometry and X-ray diffraction techniques were used to characterize and to measure the equivalent diameter (D(1,0), D(3,2) and D(4,3)) of the resulting nanopowders. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software FluentTM 6.1 with the Fine Particle Model (FPMTM) was used to simulate the whole synthesis process. The nanoparticles of SiO2 produced at the exit (filter) and on the reactor wall had primary particles diameter between 10-300 nm while the aggregates were of much larger size, between 1 and 4 micrometers. The simulation predictions were used to gain more insight into the experimental results.