Metal nitrides are intensely investigated because they can offer high melting points, excellent corrosion resistance, high hardness, electronic and magnetic properties superior to the corresponding metals/metal oxides. Thus, they are used in diverse applications including refractory materials, semiconductors, elec- tronic devices, and energy storage/conversion systems. Here, we present a sim- ple, novel, scalable and general route to metal nitride precursors by reactions of metal chlorides with hexamethyldisilazane [HMDS, (Me3 Si)2 NH] in tetrahydro- furan or acetonitrile at low temperatures (ambient to 60◦C/N2). Such reactions have received scant attention in the literature.
The work reported here focuses primarily on the Al-HMDS precursor pro- duced from the reaction of AlCl3 with HMDS (mole ratio = 1:3) characterized by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis-differential thermal analysis, and multinuclear nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMRs) for chemi- cal and structural analyses. The Al-HMDS precursor heated to 1600◦C/4 h/N2 produces aluminum nitride, characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy/energy-dispersive X- ray spectroscopy, and magic-angle spinning NMR. On heating to 800–1200◦C/4 h/N2, the precursor transforms to an amorphous, oxygen-sensitive powder with very high surface areas (>200 m2/g) indicating nanosized particles, which can be used as additives to polymer matrices to modify their thermal stabilities. Al2O3 is also presented in the final product after heating, due to its high susceptibility to oxidation.
This approach was extended via proof-of-concept studies to other metal chloride systems, including Zn-HMDS, Cu-HMDS, Fe-HMDS, and Bi-HMDS. The formed precursors are volatile, offering the potential utility as gas-phase deposition pre- cursors for their corresponding metal nitrides.
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Characterization of plasma catalytic decomposition of methane: role of atomic O and reaction mechanism
Abstract In this work, we investigated atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ)-assisted methane oxidation over a Ni-SiO 2 /Al 2 O 3 catalyst. We evaluated possible reaction mechanisms by analyzing the correlation of gas phase, surface and plasma-produced species. Plasma feed gas compositions, plasma powers, and catalyst temperatures were varied to expand the experimental parameters. Real-time Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy was applied to quantify gas phase species from the reactions. The reactive incident fluxes generated by plasma were measured by molecular beam mass spectroscopy using an identical APPJ operating at the same conditions. A strong correlation of the quantified fluxes of plasma-produced atomic oxygen with that of CH 4 consumption, and CO and CO 2 formation implies that O atoms play an essential role in CH 4 oxidation for the investigated conditions. With the integration of APPJ, the apparent activation energy was lowered and a synergistic effect of 30% was observed. We also performed in-situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier-transform spectroscopy to analyze the catalyst surface. The surface analysis showed that surface CO abundance mirrored the surface coverage of CH n at 25 °C. This suggests that CH n adsorbed on the catalyst surface as an intermediate species that was subsequently transformed into surface CO. We observed very little surface CH n absorbance at 500 °C, while a ten-fold increase of surface CO and stronger CO 2 absorption were seen. This indicates that for a nickel catalyst at 500 °C, the dissociation of CH 4 to CH n may be the rate-determining step in the plasma-assisted CH 4 oxidation for our conditions. We also found the CO vibrational frequency changes from 2143 cm −1 for gas phase CO to 2196 cm −1 for CO on a 25 °C catalyst surface, whereas the frequency of CO on a 500 °C catalyst was 2188 cm −1 . The change in CO vibrational frequency may be related to the oxidation of the catalyst.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1703439
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10351370
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics
- Volume:
- 55
- Issue:
- 15
- ISSN:
- 0022-3727
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 155204
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/ac4728
