Hydrothermal Synthesis of Nanoboehmite

摘要

A novel technique for synthesizing well dispersed, nanosized boehmite was developed based on the hydrothermal aging of boehmite gels made from 1 M aluminum isopropoxide dispersed in 2 wt percent acetic acid solutions. XRD data revealed well crystallized boehmite particles that were further characterized via thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), dynamic light scattering (DLS), electrophoretic mobility, and BET Nitrogen adsorption to determine specific surface area. The TGA mass loss for the nanoboehmite particles was 20 wt percent. The nanoboehmite particles were highly dispersed and displayed a DLS hydrodynamic particle size was 20 nm. The BET surface area was 107 m~2/g, corresponding to a particle size of 23 nm. The mechanism for nanoboehmite formation can be related to the ability of carboxylic acids to unzip the atomic structure of boehmite particles and selectively adsorb and stabilize alumoxane based nanoclusters.