Manufacture of base metal nanoparticles using a seed particle method

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a process for manufacture of base metal nano-particles using precious metal seed particles. The process comprises the steps of mixing at least one base metal precursor and at least one precious metal precursor in one or more polyol solvents, reacting the mixture at a temperature in the range of 110 to 150° C. to form precious metal seed particles (STEP A) and reacting the mixture at a temperature in the range of 180 to 220° C. to form the final metal particles (STEP B). Base metal particles of Co, Ni and Cu containing 100 to 10000 ppm of precious metals Ru, Pd, Pt or Ir are obtained. The resulting metal nano-particles with medium diameters of 20 to 200 nm are useful for electronic and catalytic applications and can be used as core materials for the manufacture core/shell type catalysts.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.