Solid-state metathesis routes to intermetallic alloys and luminescent materials

The traditional solid-state synthesis of materials involves large amounts of energy as well as long reaction times. A relatively new technique, solid-state metathesis, can be used to bypass some of the difficulties encountered in the conventional syntheses of materials. This technique can be used to produce transition-metal silicides by reacting a transition-metal halide (e.g. MoCl;A detailed study of the synthesis of MoSi;The similarity between another rapid synthesis technique called self-propagating high temperature synthesis, and solid-state metathesis is discussed and reactions which exhibit characteristics of each are presented. Salt formation in solid-state metathesis reactions, which acts as a medium to transmit the reaction heat, is the essential difference between the two techniques.;CaS doped with europium is also produced with solid-state metathesis reactions. The method is slightly different from that used to synthesize the silicides and involves a reaction heated in a sealed quartz tube. The pink color of the doped sample indicates that europium is present in the +2 oxidation state.;Metastable cubic-ZrP can be prepared by solid-state metathesis reactions. The formation of the cubic modification is found to be insensitive to the addition of all inert materials studied. Instead, the crystallite size decreases and the extent of the decrease is dependent only upon the amount of material added.