Reinforcement of alumina with carbon nano cones and characterization

Abstract Pure alumina powder is synthesized by solid state reaction method, wherein aluminium nitrate nano hydrate is annealed for 3 h at 1000 °C in muffle furnace. Carbon nano cones, as a reinforcer, are added to pure alumina in different weight proportions such as 0.5%, 2.5% and 4% and annealed at 1000 °C for 3 h in nitrogen atmosphere. The synthesized samples were characterized using XRD, SEM and DRS techniques to estimate crystallite size, interplanar distance and band gap. SEM reveals the surface morphologies of all samples and a rough estimate of crystallite sizes varying from few nm to 15 µm.