Economical synthesis of nano alumina powder using an aqueous sol–gel method

Nano alumina powder can be widely used in the fields of electronics, catalyst supports and high temperature applications. In the present article, a nano Al 2O 3 powder was synthesized by a simple aqueous sol–gel method using inexpensive AlCl 3·6H 2O and Al powder as raw materials. It was shown that the gel calcined at 1100 °C resulted in the formation of a crystalline α-Al 2O 3 nano powder. It had a particle size distribution ranging from 32 to 100 nm after heat treatment at 1200 °C.