Microwave-assistant synthesis of inorganic particles from ionic liquid precursors

The structurally similar ionic liquid precursors are explored for synthesis of inorganic particles by the microwave heating method. During the synthesis, the ionic liquid precursors have multi-functions such as reactant, solvent and template. Specifically it has good adsorbing property for microwave to result in a fast synthesis. It demonstrates that a wide variety of metal oxide or hydroxide particles with uniform size, morphology could be synthesized from tetrabutylammonium hydroxide (TBAH) or tetraethylammonium hydroxide (TEAH) ionic liquid precursors by the microwave heating method. The formation mechanism of the synthesized particles is proposed based on the experimental results.