Synthesis of magnesium aluminate spinel nanopowder by sol–gel and low-temperature processing

International audienceNanospinel MgAl2O4 powder was obtained by a sol-gel method at low-temperature processing. It was synthesized using aluminum tri-sec-butoxide and magnesium nitrate hexahydrate as precursors, in an acid medium at 80 A degrees C. Heat treatments of the dried gel were performed from 200 to 1000 A degrees C (a dagger T = 100 A degrees C) and the powders were characterized by SEM, XRD, TG/DTA, FT-IR, and HR-TEM. A mixture of semispherical nanoparticles (< 50 nm) of boehmite and unreacted magnesium nitrate was found after the sol-gel reaction. According to HR-TEM and XRD results, a low-crystalline spinel MgAl2O4 started forming at 300 A degrees C, which is a lower temperature than the reported for the same phase in other works. A mechanism of reaction is proposed to explain the formation of spinel at low temperature. At 800 and 900 A degrees C a spinel mono-phase totally crystalline was observed. At 1000 A degrees C, the spinel MgAl2O4 phase is well defined but a second phase, magnesium oxide, was found to be about 6% of the final composition. The crystal sizes were 2.272 +/- 0.054, 5.222 +/- 0.030, 11.610 +/- 0.064, and 25.140 +/- 0.20 nm for the material heat treated at 700, 800, 900, and 1000 A degrees C, respectively. [GRAPHICS