CHARACTERIZATIONS OF THE THERMAL-DECOMPOSITION OF BRUCITE PREPARED BYSOL-GEL TECHNIQUE FOR SYNTHESIS OF NANOCRYSTALLINE MGO

Brucite was synthesized by the sol-gel technique using magnesium dieth oxide in a homogeneous reaction medium. Its decomposition, including d ehydroxylation, crystallization and phase transformation was studied b y XRD, TGA-DTG, CTEM, HRTEM, SAED and FTIR techniques. It has been pro posed that during the dehydroxylation and decomposition of the magnesi um diethoxide gel, some vacancies are generated. The decomposition of brucite with hexagonal structure to form periclase with the cubic stru cture occurs in the temperature range from 473 to 773 K. In this case, nanocrystalline MgO is formed from the break down of the brucite crys talline structure. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.