Physical Methods:
Bottom-Up versus Top-Down; Top-down approach with examples. Ball milling synthesis, Arc discharge, RF-plasma, Plasma arch technique, Inert gas condensation, electric explosion of wires, Ion sputtering method, Laser pyrolysis, Molecular beam epitaxy and electrodeposition. Electro spinning, Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) – Chemcial Vapour Deposition (CVD) - Atomic layer Deposition (ALD) – Self Assembly- LB (LangmuirBlodgett) technique.
Chemical methods:
Chemical precipitation methods- Coprecipitation, Arrested precipitation, Sol-gel method, Chemical reduction, Photochemical synthesis, Electrochemical synthesis, Microemulsions or Reverse Micelles, Sonochemical synthesis, Hydrothermal, Solvothermal, Supercritical fluid process.
Combustion and Solution Methods:
Solution combustion process, spray pyrolysis method, flame spray pyrolysis, gas phase synthesis, gas condensation process, chemical vapour condensation. Fundamental aspects of VLS (Vapour-Liquid-Solid) and SLS (Solution-Liquid-Solid) processes – VLS growth of Nanowires – Control of the size of the nanowires – Precursors and catalysts – SLS growth – Stress induced recrystallization.
Biological methods:
Use of bacteria, fungi, Actinomycetes for nanoparticle synthesis, Magnetotactic bacteria for natural synthesis of magnetic nanoparticles; Mechanism of formation; Viruses as components for the formation of nanostructured materials; Natural and artificial synthesis of nanoparticles in microorganisms; Use of microorganisms for nanostructure formation, Role of plants in nanoparticle synthesis, synthesis of nanoparticles using proteins and DNA templates.
Surface Modification of Nanoparticles
Introduction to Nanoparticles dispersion and aggregation behaviour, Surface interaction between nanoparticles, Difficulty in nanoparticle control based on DLVO theory. Effect of particle diameter and solid fraction on distance between the particle surface, Surface molecular level structure of Nanoparticles. Basic approach to control nanoparticle dispersion behaviour. Surface modification of inorganic nanoparticles by organic functional groups –Organic modification of Metal, Metal oxide nanoparticles, hybridization of inorganic nanoparticles with biomolecules. Surface modification of Carbon Nanostructures.