Reactive synthesis of porous Cu3Si compound

Cu3Si compounds have lots of wonderful applications such as synthesizing nanostructured materials. Here we synthesized a Cu3Si compound with novel porous microstructure via Cu/Si reaction. The elevated temperature reaction between copper and silicon was not only used to generate Cu3Si compound, but was also employed to form porous microstructure. The obtained porous compound is mainly composed of Cu3Si phase, and the size of dispersed micropores varies about 10–150 μm by changing the silicon content in Cu/Si green compact. Moreover, the porous compound exhibits very low thermal diffusivity. It is believed that during being synthesized at 900 °C, the compact transforms to Cu3Si compound, while a quantity of liquid Cu3Si phase separates from compact and generates tiny particles on its surface, so forms porous microstructure.

Research highlightsCu3Si compounds have lots of wonderful applications such as synthesizing nanostructured materials. Here we synthesized a Cu3Si compound with novel porous microstructure via Cu/Si reaction. Cu/Si reaction at elevated temperature was not only used to generate Cu3Si compound, but was also employed to form porous microstructure. Meanwhile, no pore-forming substance or porous organic precursor was added. Furthermore, the phase composition, microstructure and thermal diffusivity of porous compound were investigated.