Ahmad Hamdan has been a professor in the Department of Physics at the Université de Montréal since 2017. He specializes in the physics of plasmas, with a particular focus on those generated in a liquid medium. The plasmas he studies exhibit novel properties in terms of temperature (1000s K), pressure (10s bar), species density (1017-19 cm-3) and lifetime (100s ns). Unlike conventional plasmas, liquid plasmas represent extremely efficient and environmentally-friendly processes for the production of nanomaterials, among other applications.
The inherent flexibility of these processes enables plasmas to be initiated and maintained in various liquids, including water, hydrocarbons and cryogenic liquids. In addition, the use of electrodes with a variety of chemical compositions contributes to this versatility. These approaches have led to the fabrication of a wide range of nanomaterials, including nanocomposites, materials with novel crystallographic phases, and binary and tertiary metal nanoalloys.