Magnetron discharge in a cold buffer gas represents a liquid-free approach to the synthesis of metal nanoparticles (NPs) with tailored structure, chemical composition and size. Despite a large number of metal NPs that were successfully produced by this method, the knowledge of the mechanisms of their nucleation and growth in the discharge is still limited, mainly because of the lack of in situ experimental data. In this work, we present the results of in situ Small Angle X-ray Scattering measurements performed in the vicinity of a Cu magnetron target with Ar used as a buffer gas. Condensation of atomic metal vapours is found to occur mainly at several mm distance from the target plane. The NPs are found to be captured preferentially within a region circumscribed by the magnetron plasma ring. In this capture zone, the NPs grow to the size of 90 nm whereas smaller ones sized 10–20 nm may escape and constitute a NP beam. Time-resolved measurements of the discharge indicate that the electrostatic force acting on the charged NPs may be largely responsible for their capturing nearby the magnetron.

This contribution reviews plasma polymer nanoparticles produced by gas aggregation cluster sources either via plasma polymerization of volatile monomers or via radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering of conventional polymers. The formation of hydrocarbon, fluorocarbon, silicon- and nitrogen-containing plasma polymer nanoparticles as well as core@shell nanoparticles based on plasma polymers is discussed with a focus on the development of novel nanostructured surfaces.

Magnetron sputtering is a well-known technique that is commonly used for the deposition of thin compact films. However, as was shown in the 1990s, when sputtering is performed at pressures high enough to trigger volume nucleation/condensation of the supersaturated vapor generated by the magnetron, various kinds of nanoparticles may also be produced. This finding gave rise to the rapid development of magnetron-based gas aggregation sources. Such systems were successfully used for the production of single material nanoparticles from metals, metal oxides, and plasma polymers. In addition, the growing interest in multi-component heterogeneous nanoparticles has led to the design of novel systems for the gas-phase synthesis of such nanomaterials, including metal/plasma polymer nanoparticles. In this featured article, we briefly summarized the principles of the basis of gas-phase nanoparticles production and highlighted recent progress made in the field of the fabrication of multi-component nanoparticles. We then introduced a gas aggregation source of plasma polymer nanoparticles that utilized radio frequency magnetron sputtering of a polymeric target with an emphasis on the key features of this kind of source. Finally, we presented and discussed three strategies suitable for the generation of metal/plasma polymer multi-core@shell or core-satellite nanoparticles: the use of composite targets, a multi-magnetron approach, and in-flight coating of plasma polymer nanoparticles by metal.

The application of low-temperature plasma-based methods for the synthesis of functional nanomaterials has been growing for several decades and nanoparticles (NPs) play an increasing role in this effort. NPs have been considered for numerous applications such as optoelectronic energy conversion, electrocatalysis for fuel cells, novel plasmonic materials, electroluminescence, macromolecular self-assembly, supramolecular chemistry, and biomedical applications. The focus of this review will be devoted to NPs prepared by vacuum-based plasma-assisted sources. In the majority of cases, plasma has been excited by a planar magnetron. At first, concisely, the state-of-the-art of plasma-based gas aggregation cluster sources is presented. Then, the stability of the deposition process and enhancement of the production yield as well as tailoring of the composition, structure, and shape of NPs are discussed. In addition, in-flight modification of NPs, the interaction of NPs with a substrate, and deposition onto the liquids are presented.