Preparationofhomogeneous,nanocrystallinealloysfromflame.docVIP

Advanced piezoresistance of extended metal/insulator core shell nanoparticle assemblies Evagelos K. Athanassiou 1, Frank Krumeich2, R. N. Grass 1 and Wendelin J. Stark *1 Supporting Information 1 Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering, ETH Zürich, Zurich, CH-8093 Switzerland 2 Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry, ETH Zürich, Zurich, CH-8093, Switzerland Submitted to Physical Review Letters * Correspondence should be addressed to Wendelin J. Stark Email: wendelin.stark@chem.ethz.ch; Fax: +41 44 633 10 83 Reducing flame synthesis. Flame spray pyrolysis proceeds by the combustion of a suitable combustable metal containing organic precursor. The precursor is dispersed by an oxygen jet forming a spray, which is subsequently ignited by a premixed flame. In a conventional spray reactor, the precursor combusts to H2O, CO2 and metal oxide nanoparticles. In order to prepare metallic nanoparticles, the flame may be operated in a nitrogen filled glove box under oxygen limitation ([Figure S1], reducing flame synthesis). In order to ensure stable combustion conditions, the flame was encased in a double walled tube. Under oxygen limitation the combustion reaction yielded CO and H2 instead of CO2 and H2O and the metal oxide nanoparticles can be reduced depending on their reduction potential. Experimental set-up for the production of NiMo/Ceramic. A flame spray nozzle was placed in a glovebox [Figure S1] and fed with nitrogen (PanGas, 99.999%). The atmosphere was continuously recycled by a vacuum pump (Busch, Seco SV1040CV) at about 20 m3 h-1 and the resulting combustion gases H2O and CO2 were removed by two adsorption columns (zeolite 4A and 13X), resulting in oxygen levels of below 100 ppm during combustion. For the synthesis of the NiMo/Ceramic nanocomposite (Ni/Mo = 7/3; CeZrO4: 10 vol%, Table S1) an air and humidity stable liquid metal precursor was prepared from corresponding amounts of nickel 2-ethylhexanoate (6 wt % Ni), molybdenum 2-ethylhexanoate in mi