Production of metallic Porous Nanopowder by nanohybrid

Iranian researchers at University of Malayer and Material and Energy Research Institute of Iran used a layer nanohybrid compound to synthesize copper porous metallic nanopowder and they succeeded in the production of copper meso-porous nanopowder as well as carbonic microporous nanoparticles."We synthesized meso-porous metallic nanopowder of copper in this research. To this end, we used a layer nanohybrid compound in order to produce the meso-porous metallic powder of copper," Dr. Mohammad Yeganeh Qotbi, member of the Scientific Board of University of Malayer, told INIC. "Firstly, we synthesized a layer-like material from copper hydroxide," he added. "In the next stage, we inserted a carbonic source between the layers. The obtained compound is called nanohybrid." "The nanohybrid was exposed to thermal treatment at 500°C. At this stage, the carbonic source converted into carbon and the layers of copper hydroxide into copper oxide. However, when the temperature reached 600°C, an internal carbo-thermal reaction took place. It means that the obtained carbon reacted with the produced copper oxide under argon atmosphere, and copper oxide reduced to metallic copper. The produced copper had a meso-porous structure." Dr. Yeganeh Qotbi also pointed out that "the produced copper has such a high porosity that it is rarely observed even in the carbonic material. In addition, the pore size varies in the range of 2-50 nm".According to Dr. Yeganeh Qotbi, the advantages of this research are simple production method, reasonable price, non-toxicity of the raw material, the ability to load high amount of carbonic material and the possibility to produce other porous metals.