Study on factors affecting the synthesis of selenium nanoparticles by solution plasma method

The solution plasma process (SPP) is a revolutionary approach for production of nanomaterials employing plasma discharge in liquid. The SPP can quickly deionize metal into the neutral state in the absence of a reducing agent. Selenium nanoparticles are created in solution plasma in this investigation. The approach is capable of producing selenium nanoparticles with uniform size in water and great stability without the use of a stabilizer. UV-Visible Spectrophotometry (UV-vis), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Dynamic Light Scattering Particle Size Analyzer (DLS), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) techniques are used to analyze the produced selenium nanoparticles. In an ethanol/water mixture, the better solvent compares to distilled water, the SeNPs forms uniform flower-like nanostructures with diameters ranging from 50÷70 nm. Also, the effects of other parameters such as voltage, electrode spacing and reaction time on the production of nano selenium are investigated. The findings show that solution plasma can help form selenium nano particle in a very short time which is about 60 minutes. In addition, the electrodes must be separated by a minimum distance which is 0.5 mm . The ideal voltage to achieve a highly efficient process is 2 kV The higher voltage cause the reaction solution boil leading to the loss of reactants while the lower value cannot ignite the reaction. The reaction efficiency reaches 100% when applied those conditions. Also, those parameters help to shorten the reaction time which is an advantage of the synthesis method. As a result, the solution plasma method of synthesising nanoselenium makes it extremely promising for use in biomedical applications.