Patent ID: 9433938
Filing Date: 2016-09-06
CPC Classification: B01J,B82Y

Claim Text:
1. A method of forming nano-particles, the method comprising: forming a plurality of aluminum-palladium carrier nano-particles using a plasma gun, wherein the aluminum-palladium carrier nano-particles comprise an interior region and an exterior surface, the interior region comprising a mixed-metal oxide that includes aluminum oxide and palladium, and the exterior surface comprising pure metallic palladium; and affixing platinum nano-particles to the pure metallic palladium on the aluminum-palladium carrier nano-particles using a wet chemistry process; wherein forming the plurality of aluminum-palladium carrier nano-particles using the plasma gun comprises: loading a quantity of aluminum oxide material and a quantity of palladium material into the plasma gun in a desired ratio, wherein the aluminum oxide material and the palladium material are in powder form; vaporizing the quantity of aluminum oxide material and the quantity of palladium material using the plasma gun, thereby forming a vapor cloud comprising vaporized aluminum oxide and vaporized palladium; and quenching the vapor cloud, thereby condensing the vaporized aluminum oxide and the vaporized palladium into carrier nano-particles.