Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 18, 2026
Reverse Microemulsion-mediated Synthesis of Monometallic and Bimetallic Early Transition Metal Carbide and Nitride Nanoparticles
Published on: November 27, 2015
Morphological and Phase Controlled Tungsten Based Nanoparticles: Synthesis and Characterization of Scheelites,
Bernadette A Hernandez-Sanchez1, Timothy J Boyle, Harry D Pratt
1Sandia National Laboratories, Advanced Materials Laboratory, 1001 University Boulevard Southeast Albuquerque, NM 87106.
Abstract:
For the first time tungsten based nanoparticles (WNPs) of scheelite (MWO(4); M = Ca, Sr, Ba, Pb), wolframite (MWO(4); M = Mn, Fe, Zn & (Mg(0.60)Mn(0.17)Fe(0.26))WO(4)), and the oxide (WO(3) and W(18)O(49)) were synthesized from solution precipitation (i.e.,trioctylamine or oleic acid) and solvothermal (i.e., benzyl alcohol) routes. The resultant WNPs were prepared directly from tungsten (VI) ethoxide (W(OCH(2)CH(3))(6), 1) and stoichiometeric mixtures of the following precursors: [Ca(N(SiMe(3))(2))(2)](2) (2), Pb(N(SiMe(3))(2))(2) (3), Mn[(mu-Mes)(2)Mn(Mes)](2) (4), [Fe(mu-Mes)(Mes)](2) (5), Fe(CO)(5) (6), H(+)[Ba(2)(mu(3)-ONep)(mu-ONep)(2)(ONep)(ONep)(3)(py)](-) (2) (7), H(+)[Sr(5)(mu(4)-O)(mu(3)-ONep)(4)(mu-ONep)(4)(ONep)(py)(4)](-) (8), and [Zn(Et)(ONep)(py)](2) (9) where Mes = C(6)H(2)(CH(3))(3)-2,4,6, ONep = OCH(2)CMe(3), Et = CH(2)CH(3), and py = pyridine. Through these routes, the WNP morphologies were found to be manipulated by the processing conditions, while precursor selection influenced the final phase observed. For the solution precipitation route, 1 yielded (5 x 100 nm) W(18)O(49) rods while stochiometeric reactions between 1 and (2 - 9) generated homogenous sub 30 nm nano-dots, -diamonds, -rods, and -wires for the MWO(4) systems. For the solvothermal route, 1 was found to produce wires of WO(3) with aspect ratios of 20 while (1 & 2) formed 10 - 60 nm CaWO(4) nanodots. Room temperature photoluminescent (PL) emission properties of select WNPs were also examined with fluorescence spectroscopy (lambda(ex) = 320 nm). Broad PL emissions = 430, 420, 395, 420 nm were noted for 5 x 100 nm W(18)O(49) rods, 5 x 15 nm, CaWO(4) rods, 10 - 30 nm CaWO(4) dots, and 10 nm BaWO(4) diamonds, respectively.
