Titanium-group nano-whiskers and method of production
AssigneesConsolidated Nuclear Security, LLC, UT-Battelle, LLC
InventorsRoland D. Seals, Paul A. Menchhofer, James O. Kiggans, Jr.
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Abstract
Disclosed herein are structures comprising a titanium, zirconium, or hafnium powder particle with titanium carbide, zirconium carbide, or hafnium carbide (respectively) nano-whiskers grown directly from and anchored to the powder particle. Also disclosed are methods for fabrication of such structures, involving heating the powder particles and exposing the particles to an organic gas.
Claims22
A method of forming titanium group nano-whiskers comprising:
- disposing titanium-group powder particles in a furnace chamber, the titanium-group powder particles comprising at least one of titanium, zirconium, and hafnium;
- establishing a controlled environment for the titanium-group powder particles;
- heating the titanium-group powder particles in the controlled environment to establish heated titanium-group powder particles;
- and
- exposing the heated titanium-group powder particles to an organic gas such that the titanium-group nano-whiskers are grown directly from and anchored to the titanium-group powder particles, the titanium-group nano-whiskers comprising at least one of titanium carbide, zirconium carbide, and hafnium carbide.
A method of forming titanium group nano-whiskers comprising:
- disposing titanium-group powder particles in a furnace chamber, the titanium-group powder particles formed at least in part of a transition metal;
- establishing a controlled environment for the titanium-group powder particles;
- heating the titanium-group powder particles in the controlled environment to establish heated titanium-group powder particles;
- and
- exposing the heated titanium-group powder particles to an organic gas to grow titanium-group nano-whiskers directly from and anchored to the titanium-group powder particles,
- wherein during the exposing step, a portion of the transition metal from each of the heated titanium-group powder particles chemically reacts with the organic gas such that each of the titanium-group nano-whiskers are a jointless extension of one of the titanium-group powder particles.
A method of forming titanium group nano-whiskers comprising:
- disposing titanium-group powder particles in a furnace chamber;
- purging the furnace chamber with a mixture of inert and reducing gases to establish a protective reducing environment for the titanium-group powder particles;
- heating the titanium-group powder particles in the protective reducing environment to establish heated titanium-group powder particles;
- and
- exposing the heated titanium-group powder particles to an organic gas to grow titanium-group nano-whiskers directly from and anchored to the titanium-group powder particles,
- wherein the protective reducing environment is maintained through the heating and exposing steps.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.