US 12325643 B1Patent grantUnited States

Mesoporous Cobalt Oxide Nanoparticles

Official patent title

Synthesis of cobalt oxide nanoparticles using L-valine as a fuel

Arabic title: تصنيع جسيمات نانوية من أكسيد الكوبالت باستخدام L-فالين وقودًا

Invention

Problem

Controlled cobalt oxide nanoparticle synthesis can require costly, complex, or hazardous processes, while fuel selection affects agglomeration, size, morphology, and porosity.

Why it matters

Reproducible cobalt oxide particle structure is relevant to catalysts, semiconductors, capacitors, coatings, and optoelectronics whose performance depends on surface and phase properties.

Approach

The method combines an aqueous cobalt precursor with L-valine as a combustion fuel, heats the reaction mixture to a dry powder, and calcines it into substantially spherical mesoporous cobalt oxide nanoparticles with specified size, pore, crystallite, and surface-area properties.

Who may benefit

Potential beneficiaries include cobalt oxide producers, nanomaterial laboratories, catalyst and capacitor researchers, semiconductor developers, and specialty-coating teams.

Potential value

The process combines aqueous preparation, an amino-acid combustion fuel, defined calcination, and multi-technique characterization of mesoporous cobalt oxide nanoparticles.

Background

Cobalt oxide nanoparticles are studied for semiconductors and capacitors because certain cobalt oxide phases offer thermal stability and electrochemical behavior. Established sol-gel, hydrothermal, solvothermal, and vapor-deposition methods can be expensive, complex, or chemically hazardous. Combustion synthesis offers another route, but the fuel affects gas evolution, particle size, shape, and agglomeration. The publication evaluates L-valine in an aqueous precursor process intended to produce substantially spherical, mesoporous cobalt oxide with controlled structural characteristics.

Technology overview

An aqueous cobalt-precursor solution and L-valine are mixed and heated, including a 120 °C embodiment, until a dry combustion powder forms. Calcination at 650–850 °C produces cobalt oxide. The disclosure defines fuel-to-precursor ratios and reports particle size, crystallite size, mesopore volume and diameter, and BET surface area. In laboratory experiments, XRD, FE-SEM, HR-TEM, and nitrogen adsorption/desorption characterize phase, morphology, aggregation, and porosity.

Potential applications

Mesoporous cobalt oxide for catalyst and electrochemical-material research.
Candidate nanomaterial for capacitor and semiconductor studies.
Cobalt oxide layers on substrates for coatings or device research.
Combustion-synthesis development using an amino acid as fuel.

Evidence-supported advantages

The precursor and L-valine are processed in an aqueous reaction mixture.
The product has disclosed spherical morphology and mesoporous characteristics.
Fuel ratio, heating, calcination temperature, time, and heating rate are specified.
XRD, FE-SEM, HR-TEM, and nitrogen-sorption characterization are described.
The claims include forming a cobalt oxide layer on a substrate or semiconductor.

Development stage

Laboratory synthesis with XRD, electron-microscopy, and nitrogen-sorption characterization is described; commercial-scale production was not established.

Commercial opportunity

The route may interest cobalt oxide and specialty-nanomaterial producers. Scale-up should verify phase purity, batch yield, particle-size distribution, agglomeration, calcination energy, precursor and L-valine cost, cobalt exposure controls, reproducibility, waste handling, and application-specific catalytic, electrical, or electrochemical performance. Cost benchmarks would also be needed.

Patent classifications

WIPO IPC

C01G51/04Compounds containing metals not covered by subclasses C01D or C01F

CPC

C01G51/04Compounds containing metals not covered by subclasses C01D or C01F
C01P2004/64Indexing scheme for structural and physical aspects of solid inorganic compounds
C01P2004/04Indexing scheme for structural and physical aspects of solid inorganic compounds
C01P2004/03Indexing scheme for structural and physical aspects of solid inorganic compounds
C01P2004/61Indexing scheme for structural and physical aspects of solid inorganic compounds
C01P2004/32Indexing scheme for structural and physical aspects of solid inorganic compounds
C01P2002/72Indexing scheme for structural and physical aspects of solid inorganic compounds
C01P2006/14Indexing scheme for structural and physical aspects of solid inorganic compounds
C01P2002/60Indexing scheme for structural and physical aspects of solid inorganic compounds
C01P2006/16Indexing scheme for structural and physical aspects of solid inorganic compounds
C01P2006/12Indexing scheme for structural and physical aspects of solid inorganic compounds

Inventors

First inventorEhab Abdelhamed Abdelrahman Ahmed

Keywords

cobalt oxide
nanoparticles
L-valine
combustion synthesis
mesoporous
calcination
BET surface area
Co3O4

Patent document and drawings

The patent publication is mapped to this record. Patent drawings remain within that publication; no separately cleared public media package has been supplied.