Extremely rapid isotropic irradiation of nanoparticles with ions generated in situ by a nuclear reaction

0498523 - ÚOCHB 2019 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Havlík, Jan - Petráková, V. - Kučka, Jan - Raabová, Helena - Pánek, D. - Štěpán, Václav - Zlámalová Cílová, Z. - Reineck, P. - Štursa, Jan - Kučera, Jan - Hrubý, Martin - Cígler, Petr
Extremely rapid isotropic irradiation of nanoparticles with ions generated in situ by a nuclear reaction.
Nature Communications. Roč. 9, Oct 26 (2018), č. článku 4467. E-ISSN 2041-1723
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA18-17071S; GA MZd(CZ) NV16-30544A; GA MŠMT(CZ) LM2011019; GA MŠMT LM2015056; GA MŠMT(CZ) EF16_019/0000729; GA MŠMT 8C18004; GA MŠMT EF16_026/0008382
Institutional support: RVO:61388963 ; RVO:61389013 ; RVO:61389005
Keywords : nitrogen-vacancy centers * cubic silicon carbide * fluorescent nanodiamonds
OECD category: Biophysics; Polymer science (UMCH-V); Nuclear physics (UJF-V)
Impact factor: 11.878, year: 2018
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-06789-8

Energetic ions represent an important tool for the creation of controlled structural defects in solid nanomaterials. However, the current preparative irradiation techniques in accelerators show significant limitations in scaling-up, because only very thin layers of nanoparticles can be efficiently and homogeneously irradiated. Here, we show an easily scalable method for rapid irradiation of nanomaterials by light ions formed homogeneously in situ by a nuclear reaction. The target nanoparticles are embedded in B2O3 and placed in a neutron flux. Neutrons captured by B-10 generate an isotropic flux of energetic a particles and Li-7(+) ions that uniformly irradiates the surrounding nanoparticles. We produced 70 g of fluorescent nanodiamonds in an approximately 30-minute irradiation session, as well as fluorescent silicon carbide nanoparticles. Our method thus increased current preparative yields by a factor of 10(2)-10(3). We envision that our technique will increase the production of ion-irradiated nanoparticles, facilitating their use in various applications.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0290872