Abstract:
Magnesium aluminate spinel (MgAl2O4) has been extensively studied and applied in many fields because of its excellent mechanical, chemical, optical and thermal properties. In this research, the influences of process parameters and addition of surfactant in hydrothermal synthesis on the synthesized powder were investigated. The hydrothermal synthesis was conducted by using nitrates as starting chemicals, ammonium hydroxide as a precipitant and cetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as a surfactant. In addition, the comparative study of MgAl2O4 synthesis between precipitation and hydrothermal methods was attempted. It was found that the phases of precursor derived from precipitation method were gibbsite and hydrotalcite whereas the phase of precursor from hydrothermal method at 180ºC was hydrotalcite which changed to pure MgAl2O4 after calcination at 1100ºC. As the synthesis temperature and time decreased from 180 to 120ºC and 24 to 1h, the average particle size decreased from 221.4 to 39.9 nm. Addition of 4.12 mol% CTAB resulted in the precursor phase change from hydrotalcite to diaspore and hydrotalcite. The particle size reduction of 51% was observed when 0.46 mol% CTAB was used. However, no significant variation in particle size was detected when using higher amount of surfactant.