Nanowire structures and methods of manufacture thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12060676-B2
Application number	US-202117646275-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 28, 2021
Priority date	Jul 23, 2018
Publication date	Aug 13, 2024
Grant date	Aug 13, 2024

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 making ceramic nanowires comprising a metal selected from Al and Mg, the method comprising:
immersing a bulk alloy comprising the metal and lithium (Li) in a solvent to form metal alkoxide nanowires; and
exposing the metal alkoxide nanowires to a reactive gas at a temperature in excess of around 100° C. and at a pressure in a range from around 0.001 to around 100 atmospheres to form the ceramic nanowires,
wherein:
the solvent comprises an alcohol.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein a content of the Li in the bulk alloy ranges from around 4 wt. % to around 50 wt. %.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein a content of the Li in the bulk alloy ranges from around 2 wt. % to around 4 wt. %.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein a content of the Li in the bulk alloy ranges from around 0.5 wt. % to around 2 wt. %.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the bulk alloy is in a form of a ground powder comprising individual particles or individual pellets, an average volume of the individual particles or individual pellets being below around 1 cm 3 .

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the average volume is below about 10 mm 3 .

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the alcohol is selected from ethanol and methanol.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the alcohol is an anhydrous alcohol.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the anhydrous alcohol is anhydrous ethanol.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the metal alkoxide nanowires are formed as bundles of the metal alkoxide nanowires;
the solvent is a first solvent;
the alcohol is a first alcohol;
the method additionally comprises immersing the bundles of the metal alkoxide nanowires in a second solvent or exposing the bundles of the metal alkoxide nanowires to vapors of the second solvent to separate the metal alkoxide nanowires from the bundles of metal alkoxide nanowires;
the second solvent comprises a second alcohol; and
the first alcohol and the second alcohol are the same or are different.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the second alcohol is selected from ethanol and methanol.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the second alcohol is an anhydrous alcohol.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the anhydrous alcohol is anhydrous ethanol.

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

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein:
the reactive gas comprises air, and
the exposing of the metal alkoxide nanowires to the reactive gas takes place at around 1 atmosphere.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reactive gas comprises water vapor.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ceramic nanowires comprise Al 2 O 3 nanowires, MgO nanowires, mixed Al—Mg—O nanowires, lithiated aluminum oxide nanowires, aluminum oxyhydroxide nanowires, and/or aluminum oxyfluoride nanowires.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ceramic nanowires comprise oxide, oxyhydroxide, nitride, oxynitride, fluoride, and/or oxyfluoride nanowires.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the oxide, oxyhydroxide, nitride, oxynitride, fluoride, and/or oxyfluoride nanowires are amorphous or nanocrystalline with an average grain size below about 100 nm.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein an average aspect ratio of the ceramic nanowires exceeds about 100.

21. The method of claim 1 , wherein an average aspect ratio of the ceramic nanowires is in a range of about 50 to about 10,000.

22. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least some of the metal alkoxide nanowires are from about 5 μm to about 100 μm in length.

23. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal alkoxide nanowires comprise polymer chains with 100 or more repeat units.

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