Combustion Synthesis of Ni-SiO2 Nanoscale Materials

Fabrication of metallic nanoparticles is of high interest for many industrial applications [1-2] including energy conversion and storage, electronics, and heterogeneous catalysts. However, it seems to be a challenging task because the metallic nanoparticles tend to agglomerate and grow into larger crystallites. The successful fabrication methods involves special strategies, for example, adding an organic ligand or inorganic capping agent, and creating of core-shell nanoparticles, in order to prevent the coalescence and growth of the metallic nanoparticles into larger aggregates [3]. The other approach employs the deposition of metal nanoparticles onto a porous solid to inhibit their aggregation and growth. Here we report the use of porous supports in conjunction with metal nanoparticles allows tailoring the textural properties of resulting materials.