Processing and applications of aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition

The aerosol-assisted (AA) CVD method involves the atomization of a precursor solution into fine, sub-micrometer-sized aerosol droplets which are delivered to a heated reaction zone and undergo evaporation, decomposition, and homogeneous and/or heterogeneous chemical reactions to form the desired products. As a variant of conventional CVD processes, AACVD addresses the availability and delivery problems of the chemical precursors. A wide range of precursors can be used since volatility is no longer crucial, offering more possibilities to produce high-quality CVD products at low cost. Some variants of AACVD have also been developed, such as AA combustion (C) CVD, electrostatic spray-assisted vapor deposition (ESAVD), and electrostatic-assisted aerosol jet deposition (EAAJD). These variants provide additional flexibility and capability to the AACVD-based processes. AACVD-based processes have attracted increasing interest in most of the CVD-related areas, and have been widely used to synthesize various films, coatings, powders, composites, nanotubes and nanowires, etc. This review highlights the principles, applications, and recent progress of AACVD-based processes.