Nanostructured deposition and devices

A process for forming a nanostructured layer on a substrate comprising:

• feeding a raw material to a thermal reactor system, wherein the raw material is a solid or a fluid;
• producing a high temperature vapor from the raw material fed into the thermal reactor system and a zone to form nucleated vapor from the high temperature vapor;
• quenching thermally the nucleated vapor through a converging-diverging nozzle to form a nucleated nanoscale powder, wherein said quenching through the nozzle has a rate of at least 1000° C. per second;
• and
• providing a substrate in a diverging section of the converging-diverging nozzle to form a nanostructured layer on the substrate.

A method for forming a nanostructured coating comprising:

• vaporizing a liquid precursor;
• delivering the vaporized liquid precursor to a boundary-layer converging diverging nozzle, thereby forming a stream comprising of nanopowders;
• and
• delivering the stream comprising of nanopowders to a substrate, thereby forming a nanostructured coating on the substrate.