morphology investigation of alumina nano-powders prepared by a sol-gel combustion method

highly sinterable alumina nano-powders have been synthesized by a sol-gel combustion method with glycine asfuel. the preparation involved the thermal decomposition of a chelating agent (fuel)-nitrate gel and theformation of amorphous precursors. the nanopowders calcined at 1100°c were characterized by x-ray powderdiffraction (xrd) and scanning electron microscopy (sem). it was found that the chelating agent and fuelused had a significant influence on the average grain size of a-a1203 nanopowder. the rate of combustionreaction between chelating agent (fuel) and nitrate was responsible for the growth of the grain.