Tungsten Carbide nanoparticles by Reducing Flame Spray Synthesis

• Research unit: INNOSUISSE
• Project number: 7103.1;5 NMPP-NM

Short description (German)

Tungsten Carbide nanoparticles by Reducing Flame Spray Synthesis

Abstract (German)

Metal nanoparticles and other non-oxidic particles are used as industrial hydrogenation catalysts (several ten million tons of organic products annually), in fuel cells, as starting materials for composite materials in high-performance non-oxidic ceramics (drills, cutting tools, engine blocks¿) and in Powder Injection Molding.While oxide nanoparticles have been successfully produced during the last years and resulted in a wealth of publications and over 130 start-ups globally, metal and non-oxide nanoparticles are not accessible by classical flame aerosol methods. Therefore, this project aims at showing the feasibility of producing non-oxide nanoparticles by transferring the conventional flame spray synthesis into a reducing environment in order to provide a scalable manufacturing tool to the metal and non-oxide nanoparticles, especially tungsten carbide. This discovery project explores the synthesis and use of such materials. Intellectual property generated should be transferred early on to an ETH spin-off company working on flame synthesis.