A STUDY OF AL-27 NUCLEAR-MAGNETIC-RESONANCE IN NANOSCALE AL2O3

The Al-27 nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of nanoscale Al2O3 (nano- Al2O3) powders and nanostructured Al2O3 bulk material were measured. H eat treatment of the powders indicated that both the chemical shift (d elta) and the linewidth (FWHM) of the main peak of the resonance spect rum increases as the treatment temperature is increased from room temp erature to 700 degrees C. As the treatment temperature is increased fr om 700 degrees C to 1300 degrees C both the linewidth and delta decrea se continuously with temperature. A comparison of the resonance spectr a of the powders to nanostructured bulk material indicates that the tw o are similar Using these results, the structure of the interfaces in the nanostructured bulk material and the environment surrounding the A l-27 nuclei, such as the type of nearest neighbor atoms, coordination numbers, electronic densities, the distance to neighboring Al-27 nucle i, etc., are analyzed.