Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-xxrs7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T10:10:35.428Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Synthesis of nanoscale particles of Ta and Nb3Al by homogeneous reduction in liquid ammonia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

Hongmin Zhu
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139–4307
Donald R. Sadoway
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139–4307
Get access

Abstract

The analysis of metallothermic reduction as an electronically mediated reaction predicted that the particle size of solid product could be reduced if the reaction were conducted in a medium that is a mixed conductor (ionic and electronic). This prediction was confirmed by reacting TaCl5 with sodium, each dissolved in liquid ammonia, to produce tantalum powder having an average particle size over an order of magnitude finer than the micron-sized powders produced commercially today. Metallothermic reduction in a mixed conducting medium has been extended to a multicomponent system in order to synthesize nanosized powder of Nb3Al by co-reduction of NbCl5 and AlCl3 both dissolved in liquid ammonia.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1Okabe, T.H. and Sadoway, D.R., J. Mater. Res. 13, 3372 (1998).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2Thompson, J.C., in Electrons in Fluids: The Nature of Metal— Ammonia Solutions, edited by Jortner, J. and Kestner, N.R. (Springer-Verlag, New York, 1973), p. 288.Google Scholar
3Nicholls, D., Inorganic Chemistry in Liquid Ammonia (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1979), p. 172.Google Scholar
4Zintl, E., Goubeau, J., and Dullenkopf, W., Z. Phys. Chem. 154A, 1 (1931).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5Taylor, W.L., Griswold, E., and Kleinberg, J., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 77, 294 (1955).CrossRefGoogle Scholar