Nanoparticles as Shuttles to Alloy Immiscible Base Metals

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Claus Feldmann
• Subject Area: Solid State and Surface Chemistry, Material Synthesis
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 582428580

Metals and alloys are central to technical and economic progress. However, some metals are immiscible in the solid state and do not form thermodynamically stable bimetallics. Fast reduction near room temperature (–50 to +100 °C) in the liquid phase is here intended to kinetically force an atomic-statistical distribution of such metals in nanoparticles. Our preliminary work on base-metal nanoparticles (all group-3-to-group-6 metals, all lanthanide metals) now allows us unique access to bimetallics, specifically of the base metals (E0(bulk-metal) < 0 V). As a very first example, MgMo nanoparticles show that the previously immiscible metals Mg and Mo exhibit properties in the bimetallic MgMo alloy that differ significantly from the monometals (e.g., reactivity, crystallization, thermal properties). Most interestingly, pressed MgMo pellets exhibit significantly different electric properties than analogously prepared and pressed pellets of monometallic Mg or Mo nanoparticles or mixed Mg+Mo nanoparticles. Beside the fundamental question regarding the accessibility of alloys of previously immiscible base metals using bimetallic nanoparticles as shuttles, this project will explore the option to establish new bimetallics with unusual properties and their understanding (e.g., electromagnetic properties, low-weight/low-corrosive alloys, catalysts, metallic glasses, high-entropy materials, high-energy materials).

• DFG Programme: Reinhart Koselleck Projects