VSParticle

VSParticle B.V. is a Delft, Netherlands-based nanotechnology company that develops and sells equipment and services for the synthesis and deposition of nanoparticles. Its core process is spark ablation: a high-voltage spark between two electrodes of a conductive source material locally heats the electrode surface to over 20,000 °C and evaporates atoms, which condense in an inert carrier gas (typically nitrogen or argon) into ultra-pure nanoparticles of roughly 1-20 nm. The resulting aerosol can be accelerated through a nozzle in a vacuum chamber and printed onto a substrate mounted on an XYZ stage, where the particles self-assemble into nanoporous layers whose thickness, porosity and pattern are set by process and stage parameters.

The company markets a tabletop VSP-G1 Nanoparticle Generator, a VSP-P1 Nanoprinter, and a VSP-S1 size selector, along with a deposition-as-a-service offering in which VSParticle applies tailored nanoporous layers onto customer-selected substrates. Because the process is dry and physical, it avoids surfactants, precursors, polymer binders and wet-chemistry steps; adhesion relies on Van der Waals forces, making the method substrate-agnostic across Nafion, porous transport layers, ITO glass, silicon wafers and MEMS chips. The company states compatibility with more than 40 elements, including pure metals, metal oxides, semiconductors, alloys and mixed-metal compositions produced by running multiple source electrodes simultaneously, and cites layer porosity of 60-80%.

Target application areas include electrocatalysis (CO2 and N2 reduction), energy storage in batteries and supercapacitors, gas sensing (metal-oxide and electrochemical sensing, SERS), green hydrogen via PEM water electrolysis, and semiconductors. The company is developing an industrial tool and pilot line intended to scale nanoporous layer production to higher volumes.