Mechanochemical synthesis of the NiSn, CuSn bimetallic and NiCuSn trimetallic nanocomposites using various types of additives

Ni-Cu-Sn nanocomposite was prepared for the first time, in the mechanochemical way complementing with the investigation of milled Cu-Sn and Ni-Sn systems using grinding additives. Several chemicals were examined like NaCl, PVP, CTAB, SDS, oleylamine, n-heptane, ethylene and polyethylene glycol. X-ray diffractometry attested the varying effects of the additives on the quality and quantity of the milling end-products: in several cases complete or partial mechanical alloying occurred, while in some instances, the segregation of the starting materials were also observed verified by spatially-resolved energy dispersive X-ray analysis. Dynamic light scattering measurements revealed the efficacy of additive amounts used on particle size reduction and size distribution of the milled bimetallic and trimetallic solids. For the Ni-Cu-Sn nanocomposites, the average solvodynamic diameters varied in the range 180–700 ​nm with 0.21–0.48 polydispersity values. The application of CTAB and PVP resulted in aggregated nanoparticles under 100 ​nm size in significant amounts verified by the transmission electron microscopy images. The analysis of the surface plasmon resonance bands of the nanocomposites indicated the presence of the Cu(I) oxide phase, while the calculated textural parameters increased up to 5 and 24 ​m2/g and 0.01–0.05 ​cm3/g specific surface area and total pore volume values, respectively, compared to the 0.8 ​m2/g and 0.002 ​cm3/g of the milling in the absence of additives.