Chem. Mater. 2009, 21, 3469–3472 3469 DOI:10.1021/cm9014817
Sonochemical Synthesis of Air-Insensitive CarbideStabilized Hafnium Subhydride Nanopowder Albert Epshteyn,*,† Andrew P. Purdy,† Katherine A. Pettigrew,† Joel B. Miller,† and Rhonda M. Stroud‡ †
Chemistry Division and ‡Materials Science and Technology Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington,D.C. 20375 Received May 29, 2009 Revised Manuscript Received July 6, 2009
Production of reactive metal nanoparticles or nanopowders is of interest for applications in powder metallurgy, energetic materials, hydrogen storage materials, tribology, nanocomposites, and ceramics.1 Rieke originally pioneered alkali metal reduction of various metal salts in solution, but focused only on the reactivity of various metals in finely divided states.2 Our research is directed toward developing methods for bulk production of nanopowders. Reactive ball-milling is the technique traditionally used in production of reactive powders but when carried out on large scale does not produce smaller than ∼100 nm particles.3 Herein, we report a sonochemically mediated method for the synthesis of reactive metal nanopowders with crystallite sizes of
