Preparation and investigation of the structural properties of α-Al2O3 nanoparticles using the sol-gel method

Abstract In this study, α-Al2O3 nanoparticles were prepared using a simple sol-gel method. Prepared α-Al2O3 nanoparticles characterized by XRD, FESEM, TEM, and EDS analysis. XRD patterns of the prepared α-Al2O3 nanoparticles showed that the diffraction peaks of 2Ɵ ∼ 43.8o, 35.0o, 57.4o, 25.4o, 68.1o, 52.5o, 37.7o, and 66.5o, and results also showed that the nanoparticles have a polycrystalline and a rhombohedral structure. These values exactly agree with the International Center of Diffraction Data (ICDD), card number 00-010-0173 of α-Al2O3. The average crystallite size of the prepared nanoparticles was 33.9, 27.7, and 24 nm that calculated using the Scherrer method, Williamson-Hall analysis, and SSP respectively. FESEM images have shown that crystalline nanoparticles have heterogeneous sizes, different shapes, spherical, and semi-spherical, and particle size distribution was ranged from 15 – 45 nm.