FTIR STUDY OF A NANOSTRUCTURED ALUMINUM NITRIDE POWDER SURFACE - DETERMINATION OF THE ACIDIC BASIC SITES BY CO, CO2 AND ACETIC-ACID ADSORPTIONS/

The surface contamination of nanosized powders is a critical factor in fluencing the overall material properties. For non-oxide ceramics, hyd rolysis leads to a surface reactivity close to that of the correspondi ng oxide. However, the surface behavior of these non-oxide nanostructu red ceramics often results in chemical specificities. A thorough inves tigation of the surface composition and reactivity of a nanostructured aluminum nitride powder already started in previous papers, is pursue d here. The Fourier transform infrared spectrometric study of carbon m onoxide, carbon dioxide and acetic acid adsorptions on the activated a luminum nitride surface revealed the presence of Bronsted and Lewis ba sic sites. Furthermore, the aluminum nitride surface chemical specific ity with respect to the gamma-alumina surface was demonstrated. (C) 19 97 Acta Metallurgica Inc.