Titanium-Group Nano-Whiskers and Method of Production

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018154435-A1
Application number	US-201815883416-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 30, 2018
Priority date	Jun 17, 2011
Publication date	Jun 7, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

Disclosed herein are structures comprising a titanium, zirconium, or hafnium powder particle with titanium carbide, zirconium carbide, or hafnium carbide (respectively) nano-whiskers grown directly from and anchored to the powder particle. Also disclosed are methods for fabrication of such structures, involving heating the powder particles and exposing the particles to an organic gas.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of forming titanium group nano-whiskers comprising:
disposing titanium-group powder particles in a furnace chamber; establishing a controlled environment for the titanium-group powder particles; heating the titanium-group powder particles in the controlled environment to a temperature that is in a temperature range from approximately 600° C. to approximately 650° C., establishing heated titanium-group powder particles; and exposing the heated titanium-group powder particles to an organic gas for a duration of time that is in a time range from about one hour to about twenty-four hours, wherein the titanium group nano-whiskers are grown directly from and anchored to the titanium-group powder particles.

2 . The method of claim 1 wherein the step of establishing a controlled environment consists of establishing a protective reducing environment.

3 . The method of claim 1 wherein the step of establishing a controlled environment consists of establishing an inert environment.

4 . The method of claim 1 wherein the titanium-group powder particles comprise titanium and the titanium group nano-whiskers comprise titanium carbide.

5 . The method of claim 1 wherein the titanium-group powder particles comprise zirconium and the titanium group nano-whiskers comprise zirconium carbide.

6 . The method of claim 1 wherein the titanium-group powder particles comprise hafnium and the titanium group nano-whiskers comprise hafnium carbide.

7 . The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the titanium-group powder particles comprise any combination of titanium, zirconium, and hafnium.

8 . The method of claim 7 wherein the combination titanium-group powder particle forms titanium group nano-whiskers comprising any combination of titanium carbide, zirconium carbide, and hafnium carbide.

9 . The method of claim 1 wherein exposing the heated titanium-group powder particles to the organic gas comprises flowing the organic gas around the titanium-group powder particles.

10 . A titanium-group structure comprising:
a titanium-group powder particle; and a plurality of titanium-group nano-whiskers jointlessly extending from the titanium-group powder particle by being grown directly from the titanium-group powder particle.

11 . The titanium-group structure of claim 10 wherein the titanium-group powder particle has a maximum dimension of about 500 microns and the plurality of titanium group nano-whiskers have a maximum diameter of about one hundred nanometers and a length that is at least about one hundred nanometers.

12 . The titanium-group structure of claim 10 wherein the titanium-group powder particle comprises titanium and the plurality of titanium group nano-whiskers comprise titanium carbide.

13 . The titanium-group structure of claim 10 wherein the titanium-group powder particle comprises zirconium and the plurality of titanium-group nano-whiskers comprise zirconium carbide.

14 . The titanium-group structure of claim 10 wherein the titanium-group powder particle comprises hafnium and the plurality of titanium-group nano-whiskers comprise hafnium carbide.

15 . The titanium-group structure of claim 10 wherein the titanium-group powder particle comprises any combination of titanium, zirconium, and hafnium.

16 . The titanium-group structure of claim 15 wherein the titanium group nano-whiskers comprise any combination of titanium carbide, zirconium carbide, and hafnium carbide.

17 . The titanium-group structure of claim 10 wherein the plurality of titanium-group nano-whiskers each have a tapered structure.

18 . The titanium-group structure of claim 10 wherein the titanium-group powder particle has a dimension that is at least one micron.

19 . The titanium-group structure of claim 10 wherein the plurality of titanium-group nano-whiskers each have a maximum diameter of about ten nanometers and a length that is in a range from about five hundred nanometers to about one thousand nanometers.

20 . The titanium-group structure of claim 10 wherein the plurality of titanium-group nano-whiskers include face-centered cubic crystalline titanium-group nano-whiskers.

Assignees

• Cons Nuclear Security Llc

Inventors

• Menchhofer Paul A
• Seals Roland D
• Kiggans Jr James O

Classifications

• B22F1/0007 Primary

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• C23C16/0218

  in a reactive atmosphere (C23C16/0227 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B22F2302/10

  Carbide · CPC title

• H01B1/02

  mainly consisting of metals or alloys · CPC title

• C23C16/32

  Carbides · CPC title