ABSTRACTA new approach has been developed for the synthesis of nanoscale ceramic powder materials from liquid organosilazane precursors. This technique, by exploiting fast kinetic chemical and physical reactions, makes it possible to synthesize significant quantities of material in a relatively short time. In the current approach aerosols of a silazane monomer, (CH3SiHNH)n, (n = 3 or 4), of mol. wt. 280–320, are injected into the beam of a cw industrial CO2 laser to obtain nanoscale ceramic powders. Injection of the aerosol into the laser-beam results in a high-temperature plume. Rapid condensation of the molecular precursor species emerging from the laser plume results in the formation of preceramic polymer particles, with an average diameter of 62 nm. One attractive feature of this process is that 70 wt.% of the liquid precursor is converted into nanoscale powders. Another feature is that only a further 10 wt.% loss occurs during post thermal treatment to form the end-product.
Laser plume containment during flexible transnasal laryngoscopy
