Scalable Production of Nanostructured Particles using Atomic Layer Deposition

Core-shell nanoparticles and other nanostructured particles have high potential in applications such as heterogeneous catalysis and energy conversion and storage. However, a hurdle in their utilization is that typically, large amounts of such nanostructured materials are required. Gas-phase coating using atomic layer deposition (ALD, a variant of chemical vapour deposition) can be used to provide the surface of a particle with either an ultrathin continuous coating or a decoration of nanoclusters. When carried out in a fluidized bed, ALD is an attractive way of producing nanostructured particles with excellent scale-up potential.We demonstrate the fabrication of catalysts by deposition of the active phase (Pt) on fluidized nanoparticles (TiO2 P25) at atmospheric pressure. We show that ALD is a technique that 1) guarantees efficient use of the precursor; 2) allows precise control of the size and loading; 3) can be used for low and medium loading of catalysts by adjusting the number of repeated cycles; 4) leads to high-quality (low impurities level) end-products.