Nanowire structures and methods of manufacture thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11214918-B2
Application number	US-201916520265-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 23, 2019
Priority date	Jul 23, 2018
Publication date	Jan 4, 2022
Grant date	Jan 4, 2022

Abstract

In an embodiment, metal-organic nanowires or nanofibers comprising polymer chains with around 100 or more repeat units are synthesized. The metal-organic nanowires or nanofibers are exposed to a reactive gas at a temperature in excess of around 100° C. and at a pressure in the range from around 0.001 to around 100 atmospheres.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of manufacturing nanowires or nanofibers, comprising:
synthesizing metal-organic nanowires or nanofibers comprising polymer chains with around 100 or more repeat units; and
exposing the metal-organic nanowires or nanofibers to a reactive gas at a temperature in excess of around 100° C. and at a pressure in the range from around 0.001 to around 100 atmospheres.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the polymer chains within the metal-organic nanowires or nanofibers are linked to a group of nearest neighbor polymer chains with intermolecular bonds.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the intermolecular bonds comprise coordination bonds, donor-acceptor bonds, hydrogen bonds, van-der-Waals bonds, or a combination thereof.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein an average aspect ratio of the metal-organic nanowires or nanofibers exceeds about 100.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal-organic nanowires or nanofibers comprise metal alkoxide nanowires or nanofibers.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the metal alkoxide nanowires or nanofibers comprise metal ethoxide, metal isopropoxide or metal n-propoxide nanowires or nanofibers or their derivatives.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the synthesizing comprises:
immersing a bimetallic alloy in at least one solvent.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the immersing includes:
a first stage whereby the bimetallic alloy is immersed in a first solvent at a first temperature to produce a set of metal-organic nanowire bundles, and
a second stage whereby the set of metal-organic nanowire bundles is immersed in or exposed to a second solvent at a second temperature to separate individual metal-organic nanowires from the set of metal-organic nanowire bundles.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the second temperature is equal to or higher than the first temperature.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the bimetallic alloy is in the form of a ground powder with an average volume of individual particles or pellets below around 1 cm 3 .

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the bimetallic alloy is an Al—Li or Mg—Li alloy with a content of Li in the range from around 4 wt. % to around 50 wt. %.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal-organic nanowires or nanofibers comprise one or more of aluminum (Al), magnesium (Mg) and lithium (Li) metals.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal-organic nanowires or nanofibers are oxide, nitride, oxynitride, fluoride or oxyfluoride nanowires or nanofibers.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the oxide, nitride, oxynitride, fluoride or oxyfluoride nanowires or nanofibers are amorphous or nanocrystalline with an average grain size below about 100 nm.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reactive gas comprises oxygen (O) molecules.

16. The method of claim 15 ,
wherein the reactive gas comprises air, and
where the exposure to the reactive gas takes place at an ambient pressure.

17. A membrane or composite composition, comprising:
the metal-organic nanowires or nanofibers produced by the method of claim 1 .

18. A Li-ion battery composition, comprising:
the membrane or composite composition produced by the method of claim 17 .

Assignees

• Sila Nanotechnologies Inc
• Georgia Tech Res Inst

Inventors

• Yushin Gleb
• Turcheniuk Kostiantyn
• Wang Fujia

Classifications

• H01M50/434

  Ceramics · CPC title

• H01M50/44 Primary

  Fibrous material · CPC title

• H01M10/0525

  Rocking-chair batteries, i.e. batteries with lithium insertion or intercalation in both electrodes; Lithium-ion batteries · CPC title

• Y02E60/10

  Energy storage using batteries · CPC title

• D06M11/34 Primary

  with oxygen, ozone or ozonides · CPC title