Emerging applications of nanocatalysts synthesized by flame aerosol processes

Abstract

Flame aerosol synthesis (FAS) has been in industrial use for mass production of nanoparticle commodities, and in recent years has been developed into a tool for economic synthesis of novel catalytic nanomaterials as its scalability and versatility became recognized. In particular, a wide spectrum of metal oxide and noble metal nanoparticles/composites have been obtained by flame spray pyrolysis (FSP) which have demonstrated applications in growing fields of catalysis such as CO2 utilization, gas sensing and water splitting apart from traditional heterogeneous catalytic processes. However, current studies on the flame-synthesized nanocatalysts have largely remained phenomenological and design of the catalysts has been relatively unsophisticated for photocatalytic and electrocatalytic applications, where ample opportunities for future research are found. It is believed that interfacing the two large fields of combustion and materials application will further motivate the advancement of combustion field, and benefit the materials community with an alternative and practical synthesis option. With this in mind, this article presents the most recent progress pertaining to such a linkage, which we hope to stimulate further and deeper interest in such cross-disciplinary efforts.