Characteristics of nanopowders produced by electrical explosion of copper wires in argon with air additives

In this paper the dispersed, phase and chemical compositions of nanopowders produced by electrical explosion of wires in various gaseous medium were investigated. It is found that electrical explosion of copper wires in argon with little additives of air (1...2 vol.%) results in producing the nanopowders having high specific surface area (10.5...11 m2/g) and containing ~80 % of metal copper. The size of copper nanopowders decreases with increasing the content of reactive gas in argon (up to 30 vol. %) and their phase composition changes: the output of CuO is observed.