Nano-Scaled Lanthanum Hexaboride (LaB6) – Control of Properties in Dependence on Type of Manufacturing

摘要： This paper presents the influence of fabrication methods on the optical and photo-thermal properties of nano-LaB6. The nano particles (NPs) were manufactured via continuously operated ball milling or induction plasma technology. Whereas different grinding processes for LaB6 were also discussed using ethylene glycol (EG) and ZrO2 grinding media in previous works, the scaled-up plasma technology presents a new possibility to gain NPs with high yields and narrow size distribution. In our work, NPs < 100 nm are achieved by grinding experiments using ethanol, 1-methoxy-2-propanol and ethylene glycol. Furthermore, the change of grinding parameters was investigated intensively. Compared to milled NPs, nano-LaB6 in high purity are gained by plasma technology and shows differences in color, morphology (UHR-FESEM), absorption behavior and crystallite size (X-Ray). Acrylate terminated starPEG (poly ethylene glycol) was used as a high cross-linked network after in-situ UV polymerization to stabilize NPs homogenously. We also set the focus on photo-thermal conversion properties of LaB6 dispersions in ethylene glycol, i.e. transformation of the absorbed photon energy into heat, and temperature distribution around the laser spot which are characterized by an IR camera.