Nanowire structures and methods of manufacture thereof
View Patent ↗In an embodiment, metal-organic nanowires or nanofibers comprising polymer chains with around 100 or more repeat units are synthesized. The metal-organic nanowires or nanofibers are exposed to a reactive gas at a temperature in excess of around 100° C. and at a pressure in the range from around 0.001 to around 100 atmospheres.
1. A method of manufacturing nanowires or nanofibers, comprising:
synthesizing metal-organic nanowires or nanofibers comprising polymer chains with around 100 or more repeat units; and
exposing the metal-organic nanowires or nanofibers to a reactive gas at a temperature in excess of around 100° C. and at a pressure in the range from around 0.001 to around 100 atmospheres.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the polymer chains within the metal-organic nanowires or nanofibers are linked to a group of nearest neighbor polymer chains with intermolecular bonds.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the intermolecular bonds comprise coordination bonds, donor-acceptor bonds, hydrogen bonds, van-der-Waals bonds, or a combination thereof.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein an average aspect ratio of the metal-organic nanowires or nanofibers exceeds about 100.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal-organic nanowires or nanofibers comprise metal alkoxide nanowires or nanofibers.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the metal alkoxide nanowires or nanofibers comprise metal ethoxide, metal isopropoxide or metal n-propoxide nanowires or nanofibers or their derivatives.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the synthesizing comprises:
immersing a bimetallic alloy in at least one solvent.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the immersing includes:
a first stage whereby the bimetallic alloy is immersed in a first solvent at a first temperature to produce a set of metal-organic nanowire bundles, and
a second stage whereby the set of metal-organic nanowire bundles is immersed in or exposed to a second solvent at a second temperature to separate individual metal-organic nanowires from the set of metal-organic nanowire bundles.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the second temperature is equal to or higher than the first temperature.
10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the bimetallic alloy is in the form of a ground powder with an average volume of individual particles or pellets below around 1 cm 3 .
11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the bimetallic alloy is an Al—Li or Mg—Li alloy with a content of Li in the range from around 4 wt. % to around 50 wt. %.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal-organic nanowires or nanofibers comprise one or more of aluminum (Al), magnesium (Mg) and lithium (Li) metals.
13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal-organic nanowires or nanofibers are oxide, nitride, oxynitride, fluoride or oxyfluoride nanowires or nanofibers.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the oxide, nitride, oxynitride, fluoride or oxyfluoride nanowires or nanofibers are amorphous or nanocrystalline with an average grain size below about 100 nm.
15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reactive gas comprises oxygen (O) molecules.
16. The method of claim 15 ,
wherein the reactive gas comprises air, and
where the exposure to the reactive gas takes place at an ambient pressure.
17. A membrane or composite composition, comprising:
the metal-organic nanowires or nanofibers produced by the method of claim 1 .
18. A Li-ion battery composition, comprising:
the membrane or composite composition produced by the method of claim 17 .