Publications

Arc discharge technique was modified by using non-traditional rotational electrode and AC applied voltage. Two different systems were designed and locally fabricated to improve the properties of prepared yields. The rotational speed of the target, shape of the electrode and type of dielectric medium have a great effect on the yield, shape, size, stability and mass production. Ethanol as a dielectric medium was used in this study and compared with published works. The yields were characterized by Particle Size Analyzer, high-resolution electron microscope (HRTEM), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), X-ray diffraction (XRD), the ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometer (UV–Vis) and Zeta potential. All characterizations show that spherical silver nanoparticles are successfully produced for both systems. The results showed that the size of the nanoparticles prepared by cylindrical rotating electrode system is (23.45 ± 0.16) compared with those produced by disk rotating electrode system with size (26.83 ± 0.44). According to the obtained data the shape of the used cathodes was greatly affected the mass production rate of the nanoparticles, it was found that the rate in case of the cylindrical cathode was (46 ± 0.6 mg/min) compared with those prepared in case of disk cathode (34 ± 0.9 mg/min) and both rotational electrodes yielded more than simple arc discharge (23 ± 0.8 mg/min).