On nanoparticle surface growth: MgO nanoparticle formation during a Mg particle combustion

It is demonstrated that formation of MgO nanoparticles during a Mg particle combustion occurs in the vapor adsorption regime and the particle coagulation and coalescence do not play any significant role in the process in question. Analysis of the particle size distributions shows that the rate of the nanoparticle condensation growth strongly depends on the actual particle size. The revealed dependence of the growth rate upon the size is consistent with the exponential law recently predicted. This finding can shed light on the long-standing general problem of gas-phase nanotechnology—the origin of lognormal size distribution behavior of generated nanoparticles.