Phosphides synthetic methods

In this book, we briefly examine the different types of reactions and methods employed in the synthesis of inorganic solid materials. Besides the traditional ceramic procedures, we discuss precursor methods, combustion method, topochemical reactions, intercalation reactions, ion-exchange reactions, alkali-flux method, sol-gel method, mechanochemical synthesis, microwave synthesis, electrochemical methods, pyrosol process, arc and skull methods and high-pressure methods. Hydrothermal and solvothermal syntheses are discussed separately and also in sections dealing with specific materials. Superconducting cuprates and intergrowth structures are discussed in separate sections. Synthesis of nanomaterials is dealt with in some detail. Synthetic methods for metal borides, carbides, nitrides, fluorides, sili-cides, phosphides and chalcogenides are also outlined. 

Synthetic methods for the preparation of metal-rich metal phosphides and monophosphides are very different depending on the morphology and the conditions of use of the final products. For example, metal phosphides can be obtained as bulk materials from high-temperamre elemental reactions, as films by chemical deposition techniques and as nanoparticles by molecular solvothermal reactions [14, 15, 94, 102-126]. 

We have discovered a synthetic route for the preparation of nanocomposite materials in which nanoclusters of transition metal phosphides are formed highly dispersed throughout a silica xerogel host matrix. In this method, a precursor molecule containing (1) the desired metal, (2) at least one phosphine ligand, and (3) a bifunctional... 

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