STTR Phase I: A Simple and Innovative Approach to the Synthesis of Metal, Alloy, Metal Oxide, and Mixed-Metal Oxide Nanoparticles

The Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) Phase I project addresses the scale-up to kilogram quantities of a novel university laboratory solid-state method of synthesizing metal oxide and metal nanoparticles by mixing common chemical starting materials and baking the resulting precursor material at modest temperatures; and the dispersment of the loosely agglomerated particles for commercial applications. The synthetic method will be, low cost, environmentally friendly and will yield high quality materials. Commercial applications include coatings for abrasion, ultraviolet radiation and heat protection. Because of their small size, high crystallinity and purity, applications as catalysts are being explored. Also, because of their crystallinity, the particles retain the properties (e.g., magnetism) of the bulk material which can be useful for applications as diverse as medical imaging contrast agents and electronic memory. Metal oxide or metal nanoparticles can be made of any transition metal, actinide or lanthanide which can also be doped with metals from Groups I and II, and they can be made with any combination of any number of these metals in any stoichiometric ratio, hence these limitless new compositions are finding unique applications in fuel cells, batteries, catalysts, etc.