TY - JOUR
T1 - Ultrafast, Energy-Efficient Synthesis of Intermetallics; Microwave-Induced Metal Plasma (MIMP) Synthesis of Mg2Sn
AU - Fan, Zhen
AU - Cappelluti, Mauro Davide
AU - Gregory, Duncan H.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank the China Scholarship Council and University of Glasgow for the cofunding of a studentship for Z.F. and the University of Glasgow for a Lord Kelvin-Adam Smith (LKAS) Scholarship for M.D.C. Mr. Hallam Davis, Mr. Nicolás Flores Gonzalez, and Mr. James Gallagher are thanked for their assistance with the vacuum system, TG-DTA, and SEM – EDX, respectively.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2019 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2019/12/16
Y1 - 2019/12/16
N2 - Magnesium stannide, Mg2Sn, can be synthesized from the elements using microwaves over minute time scales in the solid state. The effects of Mg content, pressure and microwave irradiation time were investigated and single phase Mg2Sn was produced in 1 min under only 200 W of incident irradiation in vacuuo (P < 10-6 mbar). The fine Mg and Sn metal powders both couple efficiently with the microwave field under a vacuum, heating up rapidly and generating plasma. The metal plasma formation is shown to be essential for reaction completion and promotes the enhanced kinetics of the reaction via one or more possible reaction pathways to sintered Mg2Sn. This approach provides a simple, ultrafast, sustainable, and energy-efficient route to phase-pure Mg2Sn, a material that is extremely challenging to make at high purity by conventional methods. The MIMP formalism should be applicable to many other metalloid materials of this and other types.
AB - Magnesium stannide, Mg2Sn, can be synthesized from the elements using microwaves over minute time scales in the solid state. The effects of Mg content, pressure and microwave irradiation time were investigated and single phase Mg2Sn was produced in 1 min under only 200 W of incident irradiation in vacuuo (P < 10-6 mbar). The fine Mg and Sn metal powders both couple efficiently with the microwave field under a vacuum, heating up rapidly and generating plasma. The metal plasma formation is shown to be essential for reaction completion and promotes the enhanced kinetics of the reaction via one or more possible reaction pathways to sintered Mg2Sn. This approach provides a simple, ultrafast, sustainable, and energy-efficient route to phase-pure Mg2Sn, a material that is extremely challenging to make at high purity by conventional methods. The MIMP formalism should be applicable to many other metalloid materials of this and other types.
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U2 - 10.1021/acssuschemeng.9b04811
DO - 10.1021/acssuschemeng.9b04811
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85075682671
VL - 7
SP - 19686
EP - 19698
JO - ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering
JF - ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering
SN - 2168-0485
IS - 24
ER -
