Page 78 - Synthesis of Functional Nanoparticles Using an Atmospheric Pressure Microplasma Process - LiangLiang Lin

Chapter 4
(c) 8000 7000
Ti
6000 N 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000
Ti O
0
0 5 10 15 20
Energy (KeV)
Figure 4.4 SEM and EDX images of titanium nitride synthesized in condition 1
Figure 4.5(a) shows a representative TEM image of TiN nanoparticles synthesized under the condition 1. It is observed that the TiN nanoparticles show an agglomeration phenomenon, with absence of single particle in the field of views. This can be attributed to the high reactivity of nanoparticles and they are susceptible to agglomerate together. M Kakati et al. have also reported the same phenomenon for TiN nanoparticles prepared by expanding thermal plasma method.11 To get a better idea on particle size and distribution, a size distribution histogram was constructed using TEM images, by measuring 300 randomly selected particles. The Gaussian fitted histogram indicates that the TiN nanoparticles have an average size of 10.2 nm, which are relatively smaller and have a narrower size distribution compared with other plasma-assisted researches.10,11,15 The nanoparticles had a cubic shape with crystalline structure seen in the HRTEM image (Figure 4.5 and Figure S2). The lattice plane distance of 2.2 Å corresponded to the (200) facet of TiN.31 The ring structure of the SAED pattern is characteristic of polycrystalline TiN, in which the diffraction rings can be indexed to (111), (200), (220) and (311) planes from inside to outside.
C
66
Counts