Investigation into the fractional composition of nanosized magnesium aluminate spinel powder using nondestructive ablation

Using the phenomenon of nondestructive ablation, a promising technique has been developed to determine the fractional composition of mixtures of nanoparticles having various origins; it consists of the ablation of the initial material by the laser radiation of a THz-range with the subsequent registration of disperse products in gas phase with the help of modern aerosol tools. In this work we present the results of studying a sample of MgAl 2 O 4 spinel. The average size of nanoparticles determined by the method of nondestructive ablation amounts to 9 ± 1 nm, which corresponds to the data of powder X-ray diffraction. Using nondestructive ablation, a fraction of fine aggregates of particles remaining after the sputtering of powder is additionally registered. It is shown that nondestructive ablation is a rather quick method for measuring the size of particles.