Low-temperature preparation of nano-sized Al2TiO5 powder via non-hydrolytic sol-gel route with Al metal as the aluminum source

Abstract

Al2TiO5 powder was prepared using the non-hydrolytic sol-gel route, with Al powder and titanium tetrachloride as precursor materials. The synthesized powder was characterized via XRD, DSC-TG, TEM, FTIR, FE-SEM, and laser particle size analyzer. The results indicated that Al2TiO5 powder can be synthesized at 750 ℃ via gelation when the aluminum-to-alcohol molar ratio was 1:14 and titanium tetrachloride concentration was 0.9 mol/L. The average particle size of Al2TiO5 powder was 80 nm using reflux gelation and 35 nm with direct drying gelation. The Al metal utilized the hydrogen chloride produced in situ to activate itself and formed Al-O-Ti hetero-bonds through non-hydrolytic polycondensation. The Al-O-Ti hetero-bonds underwent an exothermic reaction at around 695 ℃ to form Al2TiO5. This research has broadened the range of precursor materials available for preparing Al2TiO5 using the non-hydrolytic sol-gel route.