Hi Shakeel,

Thank you for the answer. For Ni/Au/Co synthesis, they use aqueous salts of metals as starting materials, but in case of Silicon, SiCl4 salt cannot be made aqueous because it is sensitive to moisture, it forms SiO2 which cannot be reduced by NaBH4 reduction.

Could you please suggest any other precursor/chemical method/ which will allow me to get trimetallic nanoparticle with Si as one of the element.

Thanks

Can you not use an anhydrous non aqueous solvent like DMF or THF? Admittedly, this may require alternative reducing agents -eg to generate a THF-BH3 complex from the NaBH4. But as you have discovered, you cannot use SiCl4 with any aqueous solution. One other question: do the anhydrous manganese and nickel chlorides dissolve in SiCl4?