Sintering and characterization of magnesium oxide macroporous membranes

This paper describes a method for obtaining a magnesium oxide macroporous structure with a homogeneous pore size using a reproducible technique. The proposed method used MgO nanoparticles synthesized by a sol-gel/nanotemplating technique as a starting material. The MgO nanopowder was pressed to form a pellet and sintered. The studied parameters were the pressure employed to make the pellets and the sintering temperature. The samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, nitrogen adsorption analyzed using BET and BJH analyses, X-ray diffraction and mercury intrusion porosimetry. MgO nanoparticles with crystallite sizes of approximately 9 nm were synthesized and used to make sintered membranes with 50–150 nm macroporous diameters, total pore areas above 8m2/g and open porosities above 42% for the pressure of 173.4 MPa and sintering temperatures of 1173 and 1273 K.