Characterization of Ni-Cd Nanostructured System Obtained by Chemical Reduction of Salts

The process of obtaining of highly dispersed metal powders of Ni-Cd system by reduction of their salts by hydrazine in aqueous medium at high alkalinity was investigated. The possibility of production metal powders containing up to 50 mol% of cadmium is established and conditions for their synthesis are optimized. Phase composition, structural parameters, dispersity of solid products during the reduction process were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and SAXS. The formation of metal solid solutions with FCC lattice contradicts to the known phase diagram for Ni-Cd and may be explained by increasing the energy of the particles in the nanostate. The formation of intermetallide NiCd 5 in the studied compositions area is caused by sequential character of reduction process; as a result the metal product on the initial stage of reduction is significantly enriched with cadmium.