Flow Synthesis of Single and Mixed Metal Oxides

Abstract

A generalizable and versatile microfluidic approach for facile synthesis of a wide range of metal oxide microparticles using atypical metal-organic precursors is reported. Microparticles of three single oxide materials, zinc(II) oxide, tin(IV) oxide, and cerium(IV) oxide, as well as a binary rare earth mixed oxide, lanthanum(III) praseodymium(III) oxide, are synthesized in flow. The tin(IV) oxide is shown to vary in composition from 14.2 % to 0 % orthorhombic phase at annealing temperatures ranging from 500 °C to 900 °C, while the lanthanum(III) praseodymium(III) oxide forms at a relatively low temperature of ∼700 °C.