| US 7,601,294 B2 | ||
| High volume production of nanostructured materials | ||
| Edward B. Ripley, Knoxville, Tenn. (US); Jonathan S. Morrell, Knoxville, Tenn. (US); Roland D. Seals, Oak Ridge, Tenn. (US); and Gerard M. Ludtka, Oak Ridge, Tenn. (US) | ||
| Assigned to Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Y-12, LLC, Oak Ridge, Tenn. (US) | ||
| Filed on May 02, 2006, as Appl. No. 11/415,840. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2007/0266825 A1, Nov. 22, 2007 | ||
| Int. Cl. B22F 9/00 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 266—202 [75/343; 75/330] | 8 Claims |
| 1. An apparatus for manufacturing nanostructure material, the apparatus comprising:
a catalyst feeder for introducing metal catalyst feed material into the apparatus;
a nano-element feeder for introducing nano-element feed material into the apparatus;
a vaporizer having a heat source selected from the group consisting of (a) a microwave plasma generator and (b) a hollow cathode
glow discharge system, the vaporizer (i) to form metal catalyst vapor from the metal catalyst feed material and (ii) to establish
atomic nano-element from the nano-element feed material;
a condenser comprising a condensation region for condensing the metal catalyst vapor into metal catalyst particles and for
consolidating the atomic nano-element into nano-element nano-particle clusters and comprising an aggregation region for aggregating
the metal catalyst particles and the nano-element nano-particle clusters as metal nano-element agglomerates.
|