Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis

• Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis (USP) is one of the important techniques to synthesize nano materials and to coat substrates with thin film coatings.
• Ultrasonic spraying and atomization allows for full process control resulting in homogeneous high-quality output.
• Ultrasonic spray pyrolysis excels conventional techniques, e.g. CVD by its homogeneous distribution and its cost-efficiency.

Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis

Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis (USP) is a a simple aerosol synthetic technique widely used for the synthesis of nano-materials such as thin films or nanoparticles. Due to its easy feasibility, flexibility and cost-efficiency, the USP method is an important alternative to the chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The precursors for ultrasonic spray pyrolysis are often prepared via sol-gel route. The composition of the synthesized nano-particles or the film can be easily modified via changes of the processing parameters. Ultrasonic spray pyrolysis gives you full control over the most important process parameters such as:

• ultrasonic amplitude
• precursor solution
• precursor composition/ viscosity
• flow rate
• deposition temperature
• substrate temperature

This makes the ultrasonic spray pyrolysis an interesting technology to manufacture dense and porous particles and thin-film coatings.

Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis for the Synthesis of Nano Particles

When nano particles are synthesized via ultrasonic spray pyrolysis, organic and inorganic salts can be used as precursors for the preparation of metallic, oxidic and composite nano powders . The precursor solution is ultrasonically atomized before the fine-sized droplet mist goes into the furnace, where thermal decomposition of the material takes place.
USP synthesized powders can be divided in three groups:

1. Metals, e.g. Au, Ag, Co, Cu, Zn, Ni, Fe
2. Oxides, e.g. TiO₂, ZnO, Al₂O₃, RuO₂
3. Composite materials with partially core-shell structure, e.g. CuNi, FeCo, NiCo, RuO₂/TiO₂, La0.6Sr0.4CoO₃, C/LiFePO₄, Au/TiO₂, Ag/TiO₂

Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis for Thin Film Coatings

Via ultrasonic spray pyrolysis multi-layer coating can be produced, which is of special interest for the preparation of functionally graded films. By changing the precursor solution, the composition and the functionalities of the thin film coating can be easy and precisely modified.