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Reductive/expansion synthesis of zero valent submicron and nanometal particles

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Abstract

Upon rapid heating to a high temperature (~800 °C), mixtures of nitrate compounds and urea created nano and submicron metal particles. The process (reductive/expansion synthesis, RES) results in atomic scale mixing. The product formed from mixed-nitrate (Fe + Ni) salts and urea created true metallic alloy. Unlike other product-from-powder synthesis processes, this process produced only zero valent metal. Initial work suggests this method is a scalable and efficient means for making metallic nanoparticles. Although this is primarily a phenomenological report, a preliminary model is presented: Initially, nitrates decompose to oxide; thus in the absence of urea metal oxide particles form, as in the case of combustion synthesis. In the case of urea/nitrate mixtures, there is a “convolution” of decomposition processes. Urea decomposes to yield reducing gases, leading to the formation of metal rather than oxide. Rapid “expansion” of gas leads to “shattering,” resulting in highly dispersed particles.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ingeniería Química y Ambiental, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogota, Colombia

    Hugo Zea

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87131, Mexico

    Claudia C. Luhrs

  3. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 87544, Mexico

    Jonathan Phillips

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  1. Hugo Zea
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  2. Claudia C. Luhrs
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Zea, H., Luhrs, C.C. & Phillips, J. Reductive/expansion synthesis of zero valent submicron and nanometal particles. Journal of Materials Research 26, 672–681 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2010.66

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