Tailoring porosity of colloidal Boehmite sol by controlling crystallite size

Abstract

Boehmite sols have been prepared by crystallization of amorphous aluminum hydroxide gel obtained by hydrolysis and peptization of aluminum using acetic acid. The size of the boehmite crystallites could be controlled by Al molar concentration in amorphous gel by means of controlling grain growth at nucleation stage. The size of boehmite increases as a function of Al molar concentration. With increasing boehmite crystallite size, the d (020) spacing and the specific surface area decreases, whereas the pore volume increases along with pore size. Especially, the pore size of the boehmite sol particles is comparable to the crystallite size along the b axis, suggesting that the fibril thickness along the b axis among the crystallite dimensions of the boehmite contributes to the pore size. Therefore, the physical properties of boehmite sols can be determined by the crystallite size controlled as a function of initial Al concentration.