Flame Aerosol Synthesis of Metal Sulfides at High Temperature in Oxygen Lean Atmosphere.

The development of a novel reactive spray technology based on the well-known gas phase metal oxide synthesis route provides innumerable opportunities for the production of non-oxide nanoparticles. Among these materials, metal sulfides are expected to have a high impact especially in the development of electrochemical and photochemical high surface area materials. As a proof-of-principle, MnS, CoS, Cu 2 S, ZnS, Ag 2 S, In 2 S 3 , SnS, and Bi 2 S 3 were synthesized in an O 2 -lean and sulfur-rich environment. In addition, the formation of Cu 2 S in a single droplet combustion experiment, is reported. The multi-scale approach combining flame sprays with single droplet combustion is expected to pave the way towards a fundamental understanding of the gas phase formation of metal sulfides in the future. The knowledge acquired will open the possibility for the development of a next generation gas-phase technology facilitating the scalable synthesis of functional binary/ternary metal sulfides. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.