ULTRAFINE NICKEL PARTICLES GENERATED BY LASER-INDUCED GAS-PHASE PHOTONUCLEATION

A UV laser-assisted gas phase photonucleation process is used to gener ate nickel ultrafine particles (UFPs) from ambient temperature Ni(CO)( 4) precursor. The nanostructure and morphology of the UFPs are charact erized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffractome try (XRD). Using ethane hydrogenolysis to probe the reactivity of the nickel UFPs as heterogeneous catalysts, we find that these UFPs show h igh reactivity anal extraordinary resistance to deactivation. XRD anal ysis reveals a hexagonal Ni3C phase in those UFPs that were used to ca talyze the ethane hydrogenolysis reaction in excess ethane. (C) 1998 A cta Metallurgica Inc.