Synthesis Routes

There are different ways of classifying the synthesis routes for nanostructured materials. One of them is based on the starting state of material, namely, gas, liquid and solid. Techniques such as vapour condensation [physical vapour deposition (PVD) and chemical vapour deposition (CVD) and variants of these techniques] use the gaseous state of matter as the starting material for synthesizing nanoparticles. Techniques such as sol-gel, chemical and electrochemical (electrolytic) deposition and rapid solidification processing use liquids as the starting material. Severe plastic deformation processes such as high-energy ball milling, equichannel angular extrusion, etc., and nano-lithography, start with solids for synthesizing nanocrystalline materials.