A Wire Explosion Assembly for Producing Metallic Nanoparticles and a Method Thereof
Technology Category/Market
Category: Micro & Nano Technology, Chemistry & chemical Engineering
Industry: Wire & cable Manufacturing
Applications: Drug Delivery, Nano-catalysts For Chemical Synthesis & Fuel Cells, Sensors, Micro And Nano-fluidics.
Market: The global nanomaterials market was valued at $16.3 billion in 2021, and is projected to reach $62.8 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 14.6% from 2022 to 2031.
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Problem Statement
- Generally, nanoparticles are produced from the atomization, liquid phase reduction, method using plasma & wire explosion process (WEP) that is effective due to its inherent advantages in controlling particle size.
- The exhaustive procedure not only requires human intervention to fix the wire, supply the sufficient energy and control the spark gap, but also consumes a lot of time in collecting the nanopowder after the explosion, creating hindrance in the mass production.
- Thus, there is a need for a method & device that overcomes above-mentioned disadvantages of a convention wire explosion process for the creation of nanoparticles.
Technology
The present patent discloses a wire explosion assembly and the method for producing metallic nanoparticles, comprising:
- a wire explosion chamber connected with a wire feeding unit and a pair of pneumatic cylinders and a pair of electrodes;
- a controller configured to control the wire feeding unit and the pair of pneumatic cylinders in such a manner that: the wire feeding unit provides a metallic wire supply towards the wire explosion chamber;
- and the pair of pneumatic cylinders comprising a horizontal pneumatic cylinder and a vertical pneumatic cylinder
Wherein:
- The pair of electrodes comprises a high voltage electrode and a ground electrode.
- The yield and size of metallic nanoparticles is controlled by varying at least one of the power supply to the pair of electrodes; thickness of the metallic wire; and pressure applied in the wire explosion chamber.
- The wire explosion chamber is provided with inert gas atmosphere, non-stick walls, & flat base.
- The pair the electrodes are provided with the power supply for 20s, once the metallic wire to be exploded is clamped over the pair of electrodes.
- The movement of the horizontal pneumatic cylinder and vertical pneumatic cylinder is controlled by a pair of pneumatic valves.
Method
- providing a metallic wire supply, by a wire feeding unit, to a wire explosion chamber;
- guiding by a horizontal pneumatic cylinder, the metallic wire supplied by the wire feeding unit inside the wire explosion chamber in a horizontal direction, such that the metallic wire to be exploded, is aligned with a pair of electrodes;
- retracting movement of the horizontal pneumatic cylinder in the horizontal direction and restricting the metallic wire supply from the wire feeding unit, once a predetermined length of wire is reached;
- cutting the metallic wire supply, by an isolated wire cutter, at entry point of the wire explosion chamber once the wire is clamped on the pair of electrodes;
- providing a power supply through the pair of electrodes, once the metallic wire gets aligned over the pair of electrodes, in the fixed position for exploding and thereby producing metallic nanoparticles.
Key Features/Value Proposition
- It provides hustle free guiding path for the metallic wire fed properly in explosion reactor and helps wire to settle over electrodes.
- Preserving the metallic content is important to utilize the produced high purity unoxidized nanoparticles in real time applications.
- The present art is composed of a wide base and non-stick powder reactor, which encompass the produced powder in the chamber, resulting in higher collection efficiency of produced powder almost counting 90 to 95%.
- The increased length of the wire in comparison with the existing length improves the production yield by 62.5%.
- It provides higher yield with controllable sizes of metallic nanoparticles by varying parameters.
- It can transmute the solid metallic wire into size controllable nanoparticles in the range of microseconds in each of the explosion cycle.
- It provides a strong support and grip for the fed wire with the help of pneumatic cylinders, for the flawless explosion in every cycle.
Questions about this Technology?
Contact for Licensing
Research Lab
Prof. Jayaganthan
Department of Engineering Design
Prof. Chakravarthy S R
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Prof. SARATHI R
Department of Electrical Engineering
Intellectual Property
- IITM IDF No. 2223
- In Patent Grant No. 418684
Technology Readiness Level
TRL- 3
Proof of Concept
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