Facile one‐step high‐temperature spray pyrolysis route toward metal carbide nanopowders. Issue 12 (5th June 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Xing, Junheng; Foroughi, Paniz; Franco Hernandez, Alexander; Behrens, Andrés; Cheng, Zhe
• Is Part Of: Journal of the American Ceramic Society. Volume 101:Issue 12(2018)
• Page Start: 5323
• Page End: 5334
• Publication Date: 2018-06-05
• Subjects: carbothermal reduction -- metal carbide -- nanoparticles -- spray pyrolysis -- ultrahigh‐temperature ceramics; Ceramics -- Periodicals; 620.1405
• DOI: 10.1111/jace.15785
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-7820

Abstract

Abstract: Fine ultrahigh‐temperature ceramic (UHTC) powders have found very important applications in many fields. In this work, a facile high‐temperature spray pyrolysis (HTSP) approach is implemented for the synthesis of HfC and TaC UHTC nanopowders starting from organic solvent (e.g., ethanol or 1‐pentanol) solutions of metal precursors (HfCl4 or TaCl5 ). It is proposed that, during HTSP, the precursor solution droplets would continuously undergo rapid drying, thermolysis (i.e., removal of low molecular weight species such as H2, H2 O, and CO), and finally in situ carbothermal reduction (CTR) process to give rise to metal carbide nanopowders. The as‐obtained materials are shown by SEM as uniform and separated nanoparticles (~90 nm), whereas TEM reveals the carbide (e.g., HfC) nanoparticles are actually even smaller (~10‐20 nm) and embedded in amorphous carbon from excess solvent decomposition. It is found that among different processing parameters, the organic solvent used and the metal precursor concentration could largely influence the formation of metal carbide. In addition, lower HTSP temperatures (≤~1500°C for HfC) only lead to oxide‐carbon mixtures while higher temperatures (≥~1650°C) promote carbide formation. The HTSP method developed in this work is simple, low‐cost and efficient, and could potentially be optimized further for future large‐scale manufacturing of ultrafine UHTC nanopowders.