Abstract:

Iranian researchers at the Islamic Azad University announced that they have synthesized Magnesium aluminate spinel nanoparticles to produce fireproof ceramics.

"Fireproof and non-flammable materials are among the most important and most applicable modern ceramics that have drawn the attention of many scientists and researchers. Nowadays, vast effort is taking place in order to synthesize new non-flammable metal oxides through simpler methods, and in order to improve and modify their properties," Leila Torkiyan, a member of the scientific board of the university, said.

Pointing to the fact that the magnesium aluminate pre-material had been synthesized through a combustive method, she continued, "This pre-material turned into spinel phase very quickly by using microwave radiation."

Dr. Torkiyan underlined the innovation which has been used in this research, and said "Calcination stage that includes heating at high temperature is very costly because it consumes a great amount of energy, and it also results in the agglomeration of nanoparticles. Therefore, we tried in this research to replace the conventional heating method by microwave radiation so in addition to decreasing the energy cost and the required time for the production process, we can prevent the agglomeration of nanoparticles."

"We succeeded in the production of magnesium aluminate spinel nanoparticles, that are among the most important fireproof engineering ceramics, in a few minutes through microwave radiation instead of the conventional method that usually took place at 1000 °C in two hours," she added.

The researcher announced her readiness to continue her research on the synthesis of some other types of engineering ceramics.