Photoinduced polymer coating of semiconductor nanoparticles in an aerosol process

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Alfred Weber
• Subject Area: Mechanical Process Engineering
• Term: from 2015 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 277638829

The aerosol polymerization exhibits a great potential for the encapsulation of semiconductor nanoparticles (SNPs) with a polymer shell without the need for solvents and surfactants. Here the SNPs serve at the same time as nuclei for the condensation of the monomer and as an initiator for the polymerization under UV irradiation. In the first period of the project, it was shown that for polybutylacrylate the control of the monomer vapor pressure allows adjustingthe polymer shell on different SNPs (TiO2, ZnO, Fe3O4) with a precession in the nanometer range using residence times of 20 to 30 s in the photoreactor. In addition, it was shown that the polymerization works also in air and for flame synthesized SNPs. In the second period three aspects of aerosol polymerization should be investigated, namely the interplay between particle properties (lattice facets, particle charge) and monomer (adsorption behavior), the application of the method for two examples (stability of photoluminescent ZnO SNP and enhancement of photoactivity of TiO2 SNPs) and the extension of the technology to other material classes (e.g. plasmonic NP).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants