Effect of alumina precursor on the synthesis of LaAlO3 nanopowders by reverse micelle processing

The effect of alumina precursor on the synthesis of nanosized LaAlO₃ powders by reverse micelle process has been studied. The synthesized and calcined powders were characterized by thermogravimetry-differential thermal analysis, X-ray diffraction analysis and transmission electron microscopy. Differential thermal analysis showed that LaAlO₃ phase transformation occurs at 830 °C and 866 °C for Al(NO₃)₃ and AlCl₃ precursor respectively. With Al(NO₃)₃ as starting precursor, well-crystallized LaAlO₃ phase was formed at lower temperature. Use of AlCl₃ as precursor resulted in bigger particle formation (∼41 nm) while Al(NO₃)₃ forms much smaller particles (∼28 nm) as confirmed by transmission electron microscopy.