American Elements: Hafnium Oxide Powder Supplier & Tech Info

American Elements specializes in producing spray dry and non-spray dry high purity Hafnium Powder with the smallest possible average grain sizes for use in preparation of pressed and bonded sputtering targets and in Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) and Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) processes including Thermal and Electron Beam (E-Beam) Evaporation, Low Temperature Organic Evaporation, Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), Metallic-Organic and Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD). Powders are also useful in any application where high surface areas are desired such as water treatment and in fuel cell and solar applications. Nanoparticles (See also Nanotechnology Information and Quantum Dots) also produce very high surface areas. Our standard Powder particle sizes average in the range of - 325 mesh, - 100 mesh, 10-50 microns and submicron (< 1 micron) and our spray dried powder with binder provides an extremely narrow particle size distribution (PSD) for use in thermal and plasma spray guns and other coating applications. We can also provide many materials in the nanoscale range.

We also produce Hafnium Oxide as pellets, pieces, tablets, and sputtering target. Oxide compounds are not conductive to electricity. However, certain perovskite structured oxides are electronically conductive finding application in the cathode of solid oxide fuel cells and oxygen generation systems. See research below. Other shapes are available by request.

Hafnium is a Block D, Group 4, Period 6 element. The electronic configuration is [Xe] 4f¹⁴ 5d² 6s². In its elemental form hafnium's CAS number is 7440-58-6. The hafnium atom has a radius of 156.4.pm and it's Van der Waals radius is 200.pm. Hafnium is one of the Group IV transition elements that is refined from various zirconic mineral deposits. Hafnium is available as metal and compounds with purities from 99% to 99.999% (ACS grade to ultra-high purity); metals in the form of foil, sputtering target, and rod, and compounds as submicron and nanopowder. It's primary uses are due to its ability as a nuclear "getter" or absorber of neutrons. It is a primary component in nuclear control rods for this purpose. It also finds uses as a dopant in the alloy of steel and titanium. It is also used in the production of mantles for high intensity incandescent lamps. Hafnium is replacing polysilicon as the principle gate or electrode material in metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) which are the basis for all modern semiconductors. As semiconductors have gotten smaller, the limiting factor in further size reduction has been the ability of the silicon oxide gate to perform below 10 angstroms where leakage occurs. Recent research has been devoted to the development of High-k materials which can function as a di-electric barrier or gate with lower leakage. Using hafnium based alloys as this di-electric gate has allowed for the development of MOSFET gates smaller than 10 angstroms. This allows for further size reduction, reduced switching power requirements and improved performance.