Multiple Transitional Metals And Oxides:Solvothermal Preparation, Characterization And Properties

Transitional metals and oxides have been widely used in the fields of chemical catalysis and environmental protection due to their unique magnetic, electronic, catalytic and other physical and chemical properties. Recently, one of the research hotspots in material science is to prepare transitional metals and oxides via facile and effective methods. Solvothermal procedure is not only a simple and efficient method to prepare transitional metals and oxides, but also has some other advantages, such as low cost, good repeatability and simple facility. Moreover, the phase composition, particle size, dispersion, morphology and structure of products can also be easily controlled during solvothermal procedure. Herein, the glycol-mediated solvothermal method is employed to prepare multiple transitional metals and oxides. The morphology evolution and growth mechanism have been systematically studied. Also, the potential applications for these products in absorption and lithium-ion storage fields are investigated. Specific research contents are shown as follows:(1) The transitional-metal particles, including Co, Ni, Cu, have been prepared via a solvothermal procedure. The evolution of morphology, structure and phase composition has been studied by varying reaction time, regarding to spherical Co, terraced Ni and columnar Cu particles. It is found that anionic species and reaction time play principal roles on the final morphology of the products.(2) The composition of solvothermal products is characterized by FTIR, TQ NMR, on the basis of which a possible growth mechanism has been proposed. At the initial reaction stage, transitional-metal ions are chelated with organic solvent and hence yielding metal alkoxides. Simultaneously, a fraction of ethylene glycol decomposes into acetaldehyde at high temperatures, which in turn reduce the metal alkoxides into transitional metals eventually.(3) Two types of transitional metal oxides, including ZnO and Fe3O4, have been prepared by a solvothermal procedure. Their morphology evolution and growth mechanism have been studied by varying reaction time. Furthermore, the absorption performance and lithium-ion storage property have also been studied as for the plate-like ZnO product.