Patent ID: 8663571

Claim:
A particle production system comprising: a plasma production chamber configured to produce a plasma stream; a reaction chamber fluidly coupled to the plasma production chamber and having an ejection port, wherein the reaction chamber is configured to receive the plasma stream from the plasma production chamber, vaporize a precursor material with the plasma stream to form a reactive mixture stream comprising the vaporized precursor material entrained within the plasma stream, and supply the reactive mixture stream to the ejection port; a quench chamber having a wide end, a narrow end, a frusto-conical surface that narrows as it extends from the wide end to the narrow end away from the ejection port of the reaction chamber, a cooled mixture outlet formed at the narrow end, and a quench region formed within the quench chamber between the ejection port and the cooled mixture outlet, wherein the ejection port is located within a frusto-conical-shaped portion of the quench chamber, the quench region is fluidly coupled to the ejection port of the reaction chamber and is configured to receive the reactive mixture stream from the ejection port of the reaction chamber, to cool the reactive mixture stream to form a cooled mixture stream, and to supply the cooled mixture stream to the cooled mixture outlet; and a conditioning fluid injection ring disposed at the ejection port of the reaction chamber and configured to flow a conditioning fluid directly into the reactive mixture stream as the reactive mixture stream flows through the ejection port of the reaction chamber, thereby disturbing the flow of the reactive mixture stream, creating turbulence within the quench region and cooling the reactive mixture stream to form a cooled mixture stream comprising condensed nanoparticles.