Chemical vapor synthesis and characterization of aluminum nanopowder

Aluminum is a component in many promising hydrogen storage materials such as aluminum hydride and complex aluminum hydrides. In this research, Al and TiAl3-containing Al nanopowders were prepared by a chemical vapor synthesis (CVS) process using Mg as the reducing agent. XRD and EDS results indicated that the produced powder was composed of Al or Al with TiAl3. The shape of the powder was spherical with the average size in the range of 10–50 nm measured by SEM, TEM, BET and ZetaPALS compared with the typically larger than 100 nm for commercially available fine Al powders. In addition, the effects of the operating conditions such as Ar flow rate, precursor feed rate and reaction temperature on the properties of the product powder were investigated.