ABSTRACT: Thermal plasma (TP) reactors are used extensively for the generation of particles having specific compositions or phase structures, while nanoparticles (NPs) are also being generated using precursors that are either in the gas phase, in liquid solutions or even sometimes in the solid phase. More difficult is the controlled homogeneous nucleation of pure nanomaterials, or controlled two-step systems for heterogeneous nucleation of materials such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs). One material of strong interest is the bi-dimensional structure of graphene. This talk will first present a bottom-up approach for generating graphene structures from the controlled homogeneous nucleation and rapid 2D growth of pure graphene powders. This new processing route generates exceptionally high levels of crystallinity and tuneable in situ chemical functionalization in particular for fuel cells applications. To achieve this, a strong control of the flow, energy, chemistry and particles nucleation fields is essential in the TP reactor, the nucleation itself occurring within an extreme temperature window in the plasma between 4500 K and 5000 K. The talk will also discuss how “forests” of CNTs can be grown from metallic surfaces, and how both the graphene and CNTs can be plasma functionalized to generate stable nanofluids (i.e. a stable colloidal suspension of CNTs or of graphene nanoflakes (GNF)).
Bio-sketch: Jean-Luc Meunier, Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, McGill University: Ing (Physics), EPFL (Lausanne), Switzerland, 1981; M.Sc. (1982) & PhD. (1986), INRS-EMT, Varennes (Qc), Canada.
Prof. Meunier has been active in the field of advanced materials and plasma technology at McGill University since 1986, following his work as a Research Engineer at the Hydro-Québec Research Institute (IREQ) from 1982. His research and development work has a strong emphasis on the design of plasma reactors in particular for carbon-based nanoparticles and their applications in the energy sector (fuel cells, supercapacitors, electrical energy storage, catalysis), and on advance nanocomposite materials or nanofluids for structural, electronic or medical applications. He is also involved in a series of coating technologies and applications for protective or functional surfaces. Among the technologies developed are the generation and functionalization of graphene nanoflakes or carbon nanotubes and associated nanofluids, non-noble metal catalysts, TP-CVD of diamond films, arc-PVD of diamondlike films, and 3D-structured film architectures for various applications.