Reactor concepts for atomic layer deposition on agitated particles: A review

The number of possible applications for nanoparticles has strongly increased in the last decade. For many applications, nanoparticles with different surface and bulk properties are necessary. A popular surface modification technique is coating the particle surface with a nanometer thick layer. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is known as a reliable method for depositing ultrathin and conformal coatings. In this article, agitation or fluidization of the particles is necessary for performing ALD on (nano)particles. The principles of gas fluidization of particles will be outlined, and a classification of the gas fluidization behavior of particles based on their size and density will be given. Following different reactor concepts that have been designed to conformally coat (nano)particles with ALD will be described, and a concise overview will be presented of the work that has been performed with each of them ending with a concept reactor for performing spatial ALD on fluidized particles.