Carbothermal shock synthesis of high-entropy-alloy nanoparticles

• DOI: 10.1126/science.aan5412
• Publication Date: 2018-03-29T18:11:09Z
• Authors: Yonggang Yao; Zhennan Huang; Pengfei Xie; Steven D. Lacey; Rohit Jiji Jacob; Hua Xie; Fengjuan Chen; Anmin Nie; Tiancheng Pu; Miles Rehwoldt; Daiwei Yu; Michael R. Zachariah; Chao Wang; Reza Shahbazian-Y...; Ju Li; Liangbing Hu
• Keywords: Quinary; Carbothermic reaction; Millisecond

The controllable incorporation of multiple immiscible elements into a single nanoparticle merits untold scientific and technological potential, yet remains challenge using conventional synthetic techniques. We present general route for alloying up to eight dissimilar single-phase solid-solution nanoparticles, referred as high-entropy-alloy nanoparticles (HEA-NPs), by thermally shocking precursor metal salt mixtures loaded onto carbon supports [temperature ~2000 kelvin (K), 55-millisecond duration, rate ~105 K per second]. synthesized wide range multicomponent with desired chemistry (composition), size, phase (solid solution, phase-separated) controlling the carbothermal shock (CTS) parameters (substrate, temperature, heating/cooling rate). To prove utility, we quinary HEA-NPs ammonia oxidation catalysts ~100% conversion >99% nitrogen oxide selectivity over prolonged operations.