Ultrafine nickel powder: small size, big effect!
Ultrafine nickel powder generally refers to nickel with a particle size of less than 1μm. According to the particle size, ultrafine nickel powder is often divided into micron-grade nickel powder (average particle size ≥ 1μm), submicron-grade nickel powder (average particle size 0.1-1.0μm) and nano-grade nickel powder (average particle size 0.001-0.100μm). Ultrafine nickel powder has the characteristics of small size, high surface activity, good conductivity and excellent magnetic conductivity. It is widely used in cemented carbide, chip multilayer ceramic capacitors, magnetic materials, high-efficiency catalysts, conductive slurries, absorbing materials, electromagnetic shielding materials and other fields. Many fields have high requirements for the purity, dispersibility and sphericity of nickel powder, so the preparation of spherical ultrafine nickel powder with good sphericity, high purity and high dispersibility has become the current research focus in the preparation of nickel powder.
Ultrafine nickel powder is widely used in many high-tech and industrial fields due to its high specific surface area, excellent conductivity, catalytic activity and magnetic properties.
Electronics and semiconductor fields
Multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC): Ultrafine nickel powder is a key material for the internal electrodes of MLCC, replacing the traditional precious metal palladium/silver alloy, significantly reducing manufacturing costs, while meeting the needs of high-frequency and miniaturized electronic components.
Conductive paste and packaging: Due to its high conductivity and dispersibility, it is used in electronic pastes and printed circuit board (PCB) conductive coatings to improve the conductivity and heat dissipation performance of electronic devices.
Semiconductor materials: As a conductive filler in chip packaging, it enhances the thermal conductivity and mechanical stability of the material.
Energy storage and conversion
Lithium-ion batteries: As a positive electrode material (such as LiNiO2), it significantly improves the battery energy density and cycle life, especially for new energy vehicles and energy storage systems.
Fuel cells: Used as a catalyst (such as a hydrogen-oxygen reaction catalyst) to improve reaction efficiency, reduce the use of precious metal platinum, and reduce costs.
Supercapacitors: Enhance the charge storage capacity of electrode materials through nanostructure optimization.
Catalysis and environmental protection
Petrochemicals: used as an efficient catalyst in hydrogenation, dehydrogenation and other reactions to improve yield and product purity, such as toluene hydrogenation to produce methylcyclohexane.
Environmental protection: used for waste gas and wastewater treatment, catalytic degradation of pollutants, and reduction of harmful substance emissions.
New energy catalysis: in hydrogen energy production, efficient hydrogen production through steam reforming reaction (SMR) promotes the development of clean energy.
Magnetic materials and wave absorbing technology
Magnetic fluid and storage medium: dispersed in the carrier liquid to form magnetic fluid, or used in high-density magnetic storage devices (such as quantum disks).
Electromagnetic shielding and wave absorbing materials: ultrafine nickel powder has excellent electrical and magnetic properties. Electromagnetic wave shielding materials can be prepared by compounding ultrafine nickel powder with polymer matrix materials. Multi-component composite materials such as copper and nickel have good wave absorbing and shielding properties in the high-frequency region, and can be used as stealth materials in the high-frequency region. Based on ultrafine nickel powder conductive coating, it is widely used in military stealth technology and civilian electronic equipment.
Aerospace and high-end manufacturing
High-temperature alloys: As additives to improve the high temperature resistance and corrosion resistance of alloys, suitable for aircraft engine parts.
Cemented carbide: Replace cobalt as a bonding metal, used in cutting tools and wear-resistant parts, reducing costs and improving performance.
Biomedicine and new materials
Drug carriers and diagnosis and treatment: Utilize its magnetic responsiveness and biocompatibility for targeted drug delivery and magnetic marker detection.
3D printing and composite materials: As a filler for metal injection molding (MIM), it improves the mechanical properties and molding accuracy of complex parts.
The advantage of ultrafine nickel powder is that it replaces more expensive precious metal materials, greatly reducing production costs. However, these application fields require the nano nickel powder used to have regular spherical structure, small size and uniform particle size distribution, good dispersibility, high tap density, strong antioxidant ability and other properties, which also poses a challenge to the preparation process of nano nickel powder.