A method and plant for gold recovery from any gold-bearing ore by low-temperature chlorination, wherein the finely-divided gold-bearing feedstock is chlorinated gaseous chlorine at a temperature of about 245 C. to form a highly volatile chloride compound, which after leaving a reactor is directed to a low-temperature nitrogen plasma unit having a temperature of 900-1100 C., wherein the said compound decomposes and turns into high-purity gold powder, which is cooled with gaseous nitrogen at a cooling reactor's inlet, which is equipped with a water chamber, and collected in a dumping hopper. Some embodiments allow recovery of high-purity 999.9 fine gold using an environmentally friendly, cost effective and inexpensive method implemented on an industrial scale.

A method and plant for gold recovery from any gold-bearing ore by low-temperature chlorination, wherein the finely-divided gold-bearing feedstock is chlorinated gaseous chlorine at a temperature of about 245 C. to form a highly volatile chloride compound, which after leaving a reactor is directed to a low-temperature nitrogen plasma unit having a temperature of 900-1100 C., wherein the said compound decomposes and turns into high-purity gold powder, which is cooled with gaseous nitrogen at a cooling reactor's inlet, which is equipped with a water chamber, and collected in a dumping hopper. Some embodiments allow recovery of high-purity 999.9 fine gold using an environmentally friendly, cost effective and inexpensive method implemented on an industrial scale.

A method for synthesizing nanoparticles includes aerosolizing a precursor solution in the presence of a flowing carrier gas to yield a reactant stream, the precursor solution comprising a volatile solvent and a nanoparticle precursor. The method further includes heating the reactant stream to a temperature above a boiling point of the volatile solvent to form a product stream comprising a plurality of nanoparticles, cooling the product stream, and passing the product stream through a collection liquid to collect the nanoparticles from the product stream.

An object of the present invention to provide copper fine particles which can be sintered at a lower temperature than that of the conventional copper fine particles without causing a cost increase, a decrease in productivity, a method for producing the copper fine particles, and a sintered body, and the present invention provides copper fine particles having a coating film containing cuprous oxide and copper carbonate on the surface thereof.

An object of the present invention to provide copper fine particles which can be sintered at a lower temperature than that of the conventional copper fine particles without causing a cost increase, a decrease in productivity, a method for producing the copper fine particles, and a sintered body, and the present invention provides copper fine particles having a coating film containing cuprous oxide and copper carbonate on the surface thereof.

An object of the present invention to provide copper fine particles which can be sintered at a lower temperature than that of the conventional copper fine particles without causing a cost increase, a decrease in productivity, a method for producing the copper fine particles, and a sintered body, and the present invention provides copper fine particles having a coating film containing cuprous oxide and copper carbonate on the surface thereof.

This invention relates to magnetocaloric materials comprising ternary alloys useful for magnetic refrigeration applications. The disclosed ternary alloys are Cerium, Neodymium, and/or Gadolinium based compositions that are fairly inexpensive, and in some cases exhibit only 2.sup.nd order magnetic phase transitions near their curie temperature, thus there are no thermal and structural hysteresis losses. This makes these compositions attractive candidates for use in magnetic refrigeration applications. The performance of the disclosed materials is similar or better to many of the known expensive rare-earth based magnetocaloric materials.

This invention relates to magnetocaloric materials comprising ternary alloys useful for magnetic refrigeration applications. The disclosed ternary alloys are Cerium, Neodymium, and/or Gadolinium based compositions that are fairly inexpensive, and in some cases exhibit only 2.sup.nd order magnetic phase transitions near their curie temperature, thus there are no thermal and structural hysteresis losses. This makes these compositions attractive candidates for use in magnetic refrigeration applications. The performance of the disclosed materials is similar or better to many of the known expensive rare-earth based magnetocaloric materials.

Processes are provided for producing a titanium alloy material, such as TiAl alloys. In one embodiment, the process includes: heating an input mixture to a preheat temperature with the input mixture including aluminum, optionally, AlCl.sub.3, and, optionally ally, one or more alloying element halide; introducing TiCl.sub.4 to the input mixture at the first reaction temperature such that substantially all of the Ti.sup.4+ in the TiCl.sub.4 is reduced to Ti.sup.3+; thereafter, heating to a second reaction temperature such that substantially all of the Ti.sup.3+ is reduced to Ti.sup.2+ to form an intermediate mixture (e.g., a Ti.sup.2+ salt); and introducing the intermediate mixture into a reaction chamber at a disproportionation temperature reaction to form the titanium alloy material from the Ti.sup.2+ via a disproportionation reaction.

The present invention provides a method for producing spherical nickel-based metal powder. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the method for producing spherical nickel-based metal powder includes the steps of: providing a metal precursor, which includes nickel precursor, and a sulfur compound; introducing the metal precursor and the sulfur compound into a reactor; vaporizing the metal precursor and the sulfur compound within the reactor, and producing nickel-based metal powder containing sulfur through a reaction of the metal precursor and the sulfur compound with the reducing gas introduced into the reactor.