Sol-gel synthesis and sintering of nano-size Li2TiO3 powder

Abstract

High purity and nano-sized Li2TiO3 powder was synthesized by a newly developed sol-gel method using water as the reaction medium and LiNO3 and Ti(C6H6O7)2 as raw materials at the temperature as low as 500 °C. Phase analysis, morphology, microstructure and linear shrinkage behavior of the powder were determined by XRD, TEM, SEM, dilatometer et al. The experimental results showed that the primary particle size of the obtained powder was as small as 40 nm. The powder possessed excellent sinterability, exhibiting a linear shrinkage of 14% while sintered to 1200 °C. The sintered pellets fabricated from the powder at 1100 °C for 4 h reached a density as high as 90% T.D. The process developed in this work was simple and convenient to realize mass production. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.