Scaling up of cluster beam deposition technology for catalysis application

Abstract

Many research works have demonstrated that the combination of atomically precise cluster deposition and theoretical calculations is able to address fundamental aspects of size-effects, cluster-support interactions, and reaction mechanisms of cluster materials. Although the wet chemistry method has been widely used to synthesize nanoparticles, the gas-phase synthesis and size-selected strategy was the only method to prepare supported metal clusters with precise numbers of atoms for a long time. However, the low throughput of the physical synthesis method has severely constrained its wider adoption for catalysis applications. In this review, we introduce the latest progress on three types of cluster source which have the most promising potential for scale-up, including sputtering gas aggregation source, pulsed microplasma cluster source, and matrix assembly cluster source. While the sputtering gas aggregation source is leading ahead with a production rate of ~20 mg·h^–1, the pulsed microplasma source has the smallest physical dimensions which makes it possible to compact multiple such devices into a small volume for multiplied production rate. The matrix assembly source has the shortest development history, but already show an impressive deposition rate of ~10 mg·h^–1. At the end of the review, the possible routes for further throughput scale-up are envisaged.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

nanoparticle / cluster / cluster beam deposition / magnetron sputtering / heterogeneous catalysis

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Acknowledgments

We thank the funding received from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (Grant No. FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement No. 607417 (Catsense) and the funding from the Innovate UK under grant agreement No. 104008 (ANCOP).

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