Method for making silver-containing particles

A method for making a silver-containing particulate product involving processing of a flowing aerosol stream, the method comprising:

• introducing said aerosol stream into a reactor wherein said aerosol stream is a first aerosol flow including first droplets suspended in a carrier gas. with said first droplets including a silver-containing precursor material;
• removing, in said reactor, liquid from said first droplets and forming particles including silver from said silver-containing precursor;
• removing said aerosol stream, as a second aerosol flow including said particles, from said reactor;
• said first aerosol flow characterized as including greater than about 0.5 liter per hour of said first droplets at a droplet loading of treater than about 0.083 milliliters of said first droplets per liter of said carrier gas, said first droplets having an average size and a size distribution such that said particles have a weight average size of from about 0.1 micron to about 4 microns with at least about 75 weight percent of said particles being smaller than about twice said average size;
• wherein, prior to said step of introducing said aerosol stream into said reactor, generating said aerosol stream, including ultrasonically energizing a liquid-containing flowable medium from which generated droplets are released and sweeping said generated droplets away from said flowable medium with said carrier gas, said generated droplets comprising at least a portion of said first droplets;
• and
• during said sweeping of said generated droplets away from said flowable medium, said carrier gas being delivered from a plurality of gas delivery outlets of a gas delivery system, with said plurality of gas delivery outlets being positioned to direct different portions of said carrier gas to sweep away generated droplets released from different portions of said liquid-containing medium, thereby distributing said carrier gas to promote effective sweeping away of said generated droplets from said different portions of said liquid-containing medium.

A method for making a silver-containing particulate product involving processing of a flowing aerosol stream, the method comprising:

• introducing said aerosol stream into a reactor wherein said aerosol stream is a first aerosol flow including first droplets suspended in a carrier gas, with said first droplets including a silver-containing precursor material;
• removing, in said reactor liquid from said first droplets and forming particles including silver from said silver-containing precursor;
• removing said aerosol stream, as a second aerosol flow including said particles from said reactor;
• said first aerosol flow characterized as including geater than about 0.5 liter per hour of said first droplets at a droplet loading of greater than about 0.083 milliliters of said first droplets per liter of said carrier gas, said first droplets having an average size and a size distribution such that said particles have a weight average size of from about 0.1 micron to about 4 microns with at least about 75 weight percent of said particles being smaller than about twice said average size;
• wherein, prior to said step of introducing said aerosol stream into said reactor, subjecting said aerosol stream to classifing by size, including removing from said aerosol stream a first portion of droplets, including larger-size droplets, and retaining in said aerosol stream a second portion of droplets, including smaller-size droplets.

A method for making a silver-containing particulate product involving processing of a flowing aerosol stream the method comprising:

• introducing said aerosol stream into a reactor wherein said aerosol stream is a first aerosol flow including first droplets suspended in a carrier gas with said first droplets including a silver-containing precursor material;
• removing, in said reactor, liquid from said first droplets and forming particles including silver from said silver-containing precursor;
• removing said aerosol stream, as a second aerosol flow including said particles from said reactor;
• said first aerosol flow characterized as including greater than about 0.5 liter per hour of said first droplets at a droplet loading of greater than about 0.083 milliliters of said first droplets per liter of said carrier gas, said first droplets having an average size and a size distribution such that said particles have a weight average size of from about 0.1 micron to about 4 microns with at least about 75 weight percent of said particles being smaller than about twice said average size;
• wherein, after said step of removing said aerosol stream from said reactor, cooling said particles, including flowing said aerosol stream through a cooling conduit while introducing into said cooling conduit a cooling gas that mixes with and cools said particles.

A method for making a silver-containing particulate product involving processing of a flowing aerosol stream, the method comprising:

• introducing said aerosol stream into a reactor wherein said aerosol stream is a first aerosol flow including first droplets suspended in a carrier gas, with said first droplets including a silver-containinig precursor material;
• removing, in said reactor, liquid from said first droplets and forming particles including silver from said silver-containing precursor;
• removing said aerosol stream, as a second aerosol flow including said particles, from said reactor;
• said first aerosol flow characterized as including greater than about 0.5 liter ner hour of said first droplets at a droplet loading of greater than about 0.083 milliliters of said first droplets per liter of said carrier gas, said first droplets having an average size and a size distribution such that said particles have a weight average size of from about 0.1 micron to about 4 microns with at least about 75 weight percent of said particles being smaller than about twice said average size;
• said particles include a first material phase comprising said silver;
• the method further comprises, after said step of forming said particles, forming a second material phase on said particles, said second material phase being compositionally different from said first material phase, whereby multi-phase particles are prepared including both of said first material phase and said second material phase;
• and
• said second material phase comprises a coating substantially covering said particles.

A method for making a silver-containing particulate product involving processing of a flowing aerosol stream, the method comprising:

• introducing said aerosol stream into a reactor wherein said aerosol stream is a first aerosol flow including first droplets suspended in a carrier gas, with said first droplets including a silver-containing precursor material;
• removing, in said reactor, liquid from said first droplets and forming particles including silver from said silver-containing precursor;
• removing said aerosol stream, as a second aerosol flow including said particles, from said reactor;
• said first aerosol flow characterized as including greater than about 0.5 liter per hour of said first droplets at a droplet loading of greater than about 0.083 milliliters of said first droplets per liter of said carrier gas, said first droplets having an average size and a size distribution such that said particles have a weight average size of from about 0. 1 micron to about 4 microns with at least about 75 weight percent of said particles being smaller than about twice said average size;
• said particles include a first material phase comprising said silver;
• the method further comprises after said step of forming said particles, forming a second material phase on said particles, said second material phase being compositionallv different from said first material phase. whereby multi-phase particles are prepared including both of said first material phase and said second material phase;
• and
• the step of forming said second material phase includes physical vapor deposition of said second material phase on said particles.

A method for making a silver-containing, particulate product involving processing of a flowing aerosol stream, the method comprising:

• introducing said aerosol stream into a reactor wherein said aerosol stream is a first aerosol flow including first droplets suspended in a carrier gas, with said first droplets including a silver-containing precursor material;
• removing, in said reactor liquid from said first droplets and forming particles including silver from said silver-containing precursor;
• removing said aerosol stream, as a second aerosol flow including said particles, from said reactor;
• said first aerosol flow characterized as including greater than about 0.5 liter per hour of said first droplets at a droplet loading of greater than about 0.083 milliliters of said first droplets per liter of said carrier gas, said first droplets having an a ge size and a size distribution such that said particles have a weight average size of from about 0.1 micron to about 4 microns with at least about 75 weight percent of said particles being smaller than about twice said average size;
• said particles include a first material phase comprising said silver;
• the method flrter comprises, after said step of forming said particles, forming a second material phase on said particles, said second material phase being compositionally different from said first material phase, whereby multi-phase particles are prepared including both of said first material phase and said second material phase;
• and
• the step of forming said second material phase includes chemical vapor deposition of said second material phase on said particles.

A method for making a silver-containing particulate product involving processing of a flowing aerosol stream, the method comprising:

• introducing said aerosol stream into a reactor wherein said aerosol stream is a first aerosol flow including first droplets suspended in a carrier gas, with said first droplets including a silver-containing precursor material;
• removing in said reactor liquid from said first droplets and forming particles including silver from said silver-containing precursor;
• removing said aerosol stream as a second aerosol flow including said particles, from said reactor;
• said first aerosol flow characterized as including greater than about 0.5 liter per hour of said first droplets at a droplet loading of greater than about 0.083 milliliters of said first droplets per liter of said carrier gas, said first droplets having an average size and a size distribution such that said particles have a weight average size of from about 0.1 micron to about 4 microns with at least about 75 weight percent of said particles being smaller than about twice said average size;
• said particles include a first material phase comprising said silver;
• the method further comprises, after said step of forming said particles, forming a second material phase on said particles, said second material phase being compositionally different from said first material phase whereby multi-phase particles are prepared including both of said first material phase and said second material phase;
• and
• said second material comprises at least one of a silicate, a titanate, a zirconate, an aluminate, a borate, a niobate, and a tantalate.

A method for making a silver-containing particulate product involving processing of a flowing aerosol stream, the method comprising:

• introducing said aerosol stream into a reactor wherein said aerosol stream is a first aerosol flow including first droplets suspended in a carrier gas with said first droplets including a silver-containing precursor material;
• removing, in said reactor liquid from said first droplets and forming particles including silver from said silver-containing precursor;
• removing said aerosol stream, as a second aerosol flow including said particles, from said reactor;
• said first aerosol flow characterized as including greater than about 0.5 liter per hour of said first droplets at a droplet loading of greater than about 0.083 milliliters of said first droplets per liter of said carrier gas, said first droplets having an average size and a size distribution such that said particles have a weight average size of from about 0.1 micron to about 4 microns with at least about 75 weight percent of said particles being smaller than about twice said average size;
• said silver-containing precursor is a first precursor and said aerosol stream also includes a second precursor containing a second component that is other than silver;
• said particles are multi-phase particles comprising a first material phase including silver from said first precursor and a second material phase including said second component from said second precursor;
• and
• said second material phase comprises a titanate of at least one of barium, strontium, neodymium, calcium, magnesium and lead.