Solar physical vapor deposition: A new approach for preparing magnesium titanate nanopowders

Solar energy is a major factor in the equation of energy, because of the unlimited potential of the sun that eclipses all other renewable sources of energy. Solar physical vapor deposition (SPVD) is a core innovative, original and environmentally friendly process to prepare nanocrystalline materials in a powder form. The principle of this process is to melt the material under concentrated solar radiation, which evaporates and condenses as nanopowders on a cold surface. We synthesized nanopowders of magnesium titanate by the SPVD process at PROMES Laboratory in Odeillo-Font Romeu, France. The SPVD system consists of a parabolic mirror concentrator, a mobile plane mirror (“heliostat”) tracking the sun and a solar reactor “heliotron”. The synthesized nanopowders were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) to know their crystalline structure and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used for determining the surface morphology. We have shown that the characteristics of obtained nanotitanates were determined by the targets' composition and SPVD process parameters such as the working pressure inside the solar reactor and evaporation duration (process time).