(373a) Mass Production of Fullerene-Like WS2 Nanoparticles in a Particulately Fluidized Bed and Its Tribological Properties

IF-WS₂ is versatile transition-metal sulfides and has attracted more attention due to their distinctive properties and wide ranges of promising applications, such as solid lubricants, lithium battery cathodes, hydro-desulfurization catalysts, hydrogen storage, elastic and coating materials, and electrochemical intercalation. Various methods have been proposed for the synthesis of WS₂ nanoparticles such as gas-solid reaction, chemical vapor deposition, arc discharge, thermal decomposition, hydrothermal synthesis, sonochemical process and template synthesis. A particularly significant breakthrough in WS₂ and MoS₂ nanoparticles synthesis was made by Tenne and co-workers through the gas phase reaction between WO₃ or MoO₃ and H₂S in a reducing atmosphere at elevated temperature (800-900 ^oC).

In this study, a particulately fluidized bed (PFB) for synthesis of fullerene-like WS₂ nanoparticles was firstly constructed, where the WS₂ nanoparticles were fluidized particulately, which was rather more simple than the reactor reported by Tenne. The enhanced mass transfer coefficient in a fluidized bed would promote the sulfide reaction to form IF-WS₂. The reaction window of parameters for synthesis of IF-WS₂was elucidated.

Reference

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[3] Li, Y.D.; Li, X.L.; He, R.R.; Zhu, J.; Deng, Z.X. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2002, 124, 1411–1416.