A New Method for the Production of Alloy Nanoparticles by Electrical Wire Explosion

The electrical wire explosion has been quite successful in the production of nanoparticles of various pure metals. However, the methodfailedtoextendtotherealmofalloysandintermetallicsdueinparttotheunavailability ofcorrespondingwires.Inthispaper,anewsolutionforthis problem is suggested which utilizes electroplated wires instead. It is demonstrated that the explosion of Cu-plated Ni wire produce singlephase CuNi alloy nanoparticles. The method is believed to have a potential to enable the synthesis of wide variety of alloy and intermetallicnanoparticles conveniently. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.MEP2007100](Received May 1, 2007; Accepted May 18, 2007; Published June 20, 2007)Keywords: wire explosion, CuNi alloy, nanoparticle, electrodeposition