Synthesis of high surface area transitional alumina from Al(OPh)3

Al(OPh) 3 involving sterically hindered phenyl groups on ultrasonic assisted micro hydrolysis yielded a mixture of boehmite and bayerite as deduced from the FTIR and powder X-ray diffraction pattern. In the thermogravimetric trace, the complete removal of decomposable moieties of the hydrolyzed gel occurred around 530 °C. Calcining the gel at temperatures 600, 700, 800 and 900 °C showed crystalline tetragonal δ-Al 2 O 3 to be the product at 900 °C as deduced from FTIR, 27 Al NMR and PXRD techniques. δ-Al 2 O 3 showed a surface area of 135 m 2 /g with rectangular bar like morphology with the sizes below 50 nm in the TEM images.