One-step synthesis of silica-coated magnetite nanoparticles by electrooxidation of iron in sodium silicate solution

In the present study, solid-solution gold?Cplatinum (Au?CPt) nanoparticles with controllable compositions were fabricated by high-intensity femtosecond laser irradiation of an aqueous solution of gold and platinum ions without any chemicals and complicated processes. Transmittance electron microscopy revealed that the single nanometer-sized particles were fabricated by femtosecond laser irradiation of mixed aqueous solutions of gold and platinum ions. The crystalline structure of nanoparticles was characterized by electron and X-ray diffractions. Contrary to the bulk Au?CPt binary systems, which commonly contain a pair of diffraction peaks between pure gold and platinum peaks because of its large miscibility gap in phase diagram, or mixture of Au and Pt, the diffraction peaks of Au?CPt nanoparticles fabricated in the experiment showed a characteristic of the fcc-type lattice. Moreover, the diffraction patterns shifted monotonically from the peak position of pure gold to that of pure platinum as the fractions of platinum ions in the solution were increased. These observations strongly imply that the Au?CPt nanoparticles were solid solution with intended compositions. This technique is not only simple and environmentally friendly, but also applicable to other binary and ternary systems.     

Macroporous zirconia particles prepared by subcritical water in batch and flow processes

Porous zirconia particles were synthesized through a low-temperature hydrothermal synthesis process. Under hydrothermal conditions, water can control the direction of crystal growth, morphology, particle size, and size distribution because thermodynamics and transport properties can be controlled by pressure and temperature. In a batch process, the hydrothermal synthesis was conducted at 200–300 °C and 30 MPa with an SUS-304 tube as the reactor. At the same reaction pressure, experiments were also performed for a flow process with temperatures of 180–200 °C. The synthesized products were calcined and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results showed that the macroporous zirconia particles that were formed had pore diameters around 419 nm. The XRD pattern indicated that the products were composed of zirconium oxide particles with monoclinic, tetragonal, and cubic structures.