Formation of core-shell structured composite microparticles via cyclic gas-solid reactions.

This work reports a novel low-cost and environmental-friendly preparation strategy for core-shell structured composite microparticles and discusses its formation mechanism. Different from most conventional strategies, which involve coating or coating-like processes, this reported strategy uses irreversible solid-phase ionic diffusion in a gas-solid reaction cycle (e.g., reduction and oxidation of Fe) to gradually move the shell material from a core-and-shell material mixture microparticle to the surface. Without the need for solvent as do many conventional processes, this novel process only involves gas-solid reactions, which reduces environmental impact. To substantiate this conceived strategy, a micrometer-sized microparticle made up of a mixture of Fe2O3 and Al2O3 powders is first reduced by H2 and then oxidized by O2 over 50 cycles at 900 °C. These reactions are known to proceed mainly through the diffusion of solid-phase Fe cations. SEM and EDX analyses verify the formation of an Al2O3 core-Fe2O3 shell structure at the end of the 50 reaction cycles. If the cyclic reactions of a microparticle proceed mainly through the diffusion of gaseous-reactant-derived O anions such as the mixture of Fe2O3 and TiO2 instead of solid-phase Fe cation diffusion, no formation of the core-shell structure is observed in the resulting microparticle. These two opposing results underscore the dominating role of solid-phase ionic diffusion in the formation of the core-shell structure. A 2-D continuum diffusion model is applied to account for the inter-Fe-particle bridging and directional product layer growth phenomena during an oxidation reaction. The simulation further verifies the conceived core-shell formation strategy.