Mesoporous palla
dium/silico
n nitri
de
na
nocomposites were prepare
d via three
differe
nt chemical routesto ge
nerate simulta
neous co
ntrol of the soli
d-state morphology of the palla
dium
na
noparticles a
nd that ofthe silico
n nitri
de support at the same time as co
ntrolli
ng the pore size a
nd size
distributio
n. Pyrolysis ofthe reactio
n pro
duct of silico
n diimi
de gel with P
dCl
2 u
nder a NH
3 flow at 1000
![](/images/e<font color=)
ntities/
deg.gif">C gave a compositewith highly crystalli
ne P
d na
noparticles
disperse
d i
n a
n ![](/images/gifchars/alpha.gif)
-Si
3N
4 matrix. A composite with partiallycrystallize
d P
d na
noparticles
disperse
d i
n a
n amorphous Si
3N
4 matrix was obtai
ne
d by the hy
droge
nre
ductio
n of the reactio
n pro
duct of silico
n nitri
de with P
dCl
2, whereas hy
droge
n re
ductio
n of a
nimpreg
nate
d mixture of Si
3N
4 with bis(
dibe
nzyli
de
neaceto
ne)palla
dium (DBA) le
d to the formatio
n of acomposite with amorphous P
d na
noparticles
disperse
d i
n a
n amorphous Si
3N
4 matrix. Most of these
newmesoporous
na
nocomposites exhibit a high surface area >400 m
2 g
-1 a
nd a
narrow pore size
distributio
nof 5-12
nm with a loa
di
ng of up to 2% P
d na
noparticles 2-20
nm i
n diameter. Prelimi
nary i
nvestigatio
nsshow that these
na
nocomposites are pote
ntially useful heteroge
neous catalysts for a ra
nge of liqui
d-phase chemical reactio
ns.