Unusual Behavior of Nanocrystalline Strontium Oxide Toward Hydrogen Sulfide

The thermodynamically favored reaction of solid strontium oxide with gaseous hydrogen sulfide is kinetically enhanced to a large degree by the use of higher surface area nanocrystalline SrO in the form of brush-like collections of metal oxide fibers. An unusual feature is that the reaction SrO + H2S → SrS + H2O proceeds stoichiometrically at room temperature, but at higher temperatures the reaction efficiency goes down, apparently due to rapid temperature induced crystal growth of the nanocrystalline SrO. The samples studied vary in crystallite size from 20 to 27 nm, while average particle size (nanocrystal aggregates) varies in the following order; aerogel prepared SrO (∼100 nm) <conventionally prepared SrO (∼500 nm) <commercial SrO (1000 nm).