Preparation of High-Purity Magnesium Aluminate Spinel Powder by Thermal Decomposition Method

A precursor was obtained after dissolution, drying and cooling using MgSO4·7H2O and NH4Al (SO4)2·12H2O as raw materials. Then the high-purity magnesium aluminate (MgAl2O4) spinel powder was synthesized via the thermal decomposition process of the precursor calcined at different temperatures. The phase, morphology and particle size of the powder obtained at different calcining temperatures were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and laser particle size analyzer. And also the purity of the powder was tested by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). The results show that the powder exhibits better crystalline shape and bigger crystalline size with the calcining temperature increasing. The calculated grain size is below 30 nm according to Scherrer formula. The particle size of the powder is below 35μm, the particle size distribution is relatively wide and some particles reunite to be bigger ones with the calcining temperature rising. The powder appears to be plate-shaped and the morphology of the grain is irregular particle. The purity of the powder is relatively high. Especially, the purity of the powder obtained at 1150 °C is 98.88%.