Co-precipitation synthesis of lutetium aluminum garnet (LuAG) powders: The influence of ethanol

Aluminum Garnet (LuAG) precursors were co-precipitated by using ethanol-water as the precipitant solvent. The effect of different volume ratios of ethanol to water (R) on the preparation of pure-phase LuAG powders has been mainly studied. The evolution of phase, composition and micro-structure of the as-synthesized LuAG powders were characterized by TG/DTA, FTIR, XRD, BET, and SEM. The BET-equivalent diameter of LuAG nano particles increased with R. The ethanol-water solvent does not change the main composition of the LuAG precursors, but has great influence on the morphology of the final LuAG nano particles. Uniformly dispersed LuAG powders calcined at 1200 °C for 3 h with a particle size of approximately 120 nm were obtained by using ethanol-water solvent with proper R = 1. The mechanism of ethanol in the preparation process was discussed.