Using Liquid Metals to Synthesize High-Entropy Alloy Nanoparticles
A group of scientists comprising chemists and engineers from multiple institutions in China has discovered a promising alternative method for synthesizing high-entropy alloy nanoparticles (HEA-NPs) by utilizing liquid metal. The team’s study, published in the prestigious journal Nature, focused on creating various HEA-NPs using liquid metals. Nature’s editors have also published a Research Briefing within the same journal, summarizing the study’s findings.
Scientists have discovered a more efficient method for synthesizing high-entropy alloy nanoparticles (HEA-NPs) by using liquid metals. HEA-NPs are tiny particles that combine multiple metals to exhibit unique and beneficial properties. Traditional methods of synthesizing HEA-NPs involve high-temperature heating, which is costly and hazardous due to temperatures as high as 2,000 Kelvin. However, the Chinese research team proposes a simpler approach.
Instead of directly mixing the ingredients and subjecting them to high temperatures, the team first mixed the metals in liquid metal, such as liquid gallium. This liquid metal mixing process resulted in a homogeneous distribution of the metals, crucial for producing well-mixed HEA-NPs. The subsequent heating step only required temperatures as low as 923 Kelvin to achieve the desired product.
The researchers successfully tested this method using various liquid metals and produced evenly mixed HEA-NPs composed of different metals. They performed thorough compositional and structural analyses, confirming that the resulting materials were comparable to those obtained using conventional methods.
The team suggests that their technique holds potential for synthesizing a wide range of HEA-NPs and may even be applicable to synthesizing other materials.
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