Use of ionic liquids for the synthesis of iron, ruthenium, and osmium nanoparticles from their metal carbonyl precursors

Stable iron, ruthenium, and osmium nanoparticles are obtained reproducibly by thermal or photolytic decomposition under an argon atmosphere from Fe-2(CO)(9), RU3(CO)(12), and Os-3(CO)(12), dissolved in the ionic liquid BMim(+)BF(4)(-), with a very small and uniform size for Ru and Os nanoparticles of about 1.5-2.5 nm without any additional stabilizers or capping molecules (characterization by, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering, and transmission electron diffraction (TED) analysis).