Solid State Metathesis Reaction For Metal Borides, Silicides, Pnictides and Chalcogenides: Ionic or Elemental Pathways

摘要

A key focal point in inorganic and materials chemistry is the development of new routes to materials. The conventional 'heat and beat' approach, which has been utilised since antiquity, requires starling materials (precursors) to be heated in a fire or oven followed by grinding and further reheating until the desired phase is produced. This method works extremely well and forms the basis for most of the ceramics industry. New approaches that aim to alleviate the time and energy costs involved in conventional preparations include sol-gel and hydrothermal synthesis, molecular precursors and self propagating high temperature synthesis (SHS). Some of these methods aim to reduce the external energy input for the reaction by introducing mixing of the required elements on the atomic scale, and thereby overcoming the solid-state diffusion barrier.