Roles of ethylene glycol solvent and polymers in preparing uniformly distributed MgO nanoparticles

This study focus on specifying the roles of solvent ethylene glycol (EG) and polymers for synthesis of uniformly distributed magnesium oxide (MgO) nanoparticles with average crystallite size of around 50 nm through a modified polyol method. Based on different characterization results, it was concluded that, Mg2+ ions was precipitated by the −OH and CO32− ions decomposed from urea in ethylene glycol (EG) medium (CO(NH2)2 → NH3 + HNCO, HNCO + H2O → NH3 + CO2), thus forming well crystallized Mg5(CO3)4(OH)2 (H2O)4 precursor which could be converted to MgO by calcination. Surface protectors PEG and PVP have no obvious influences on cyrtsal structure, morphology and size uniformity of as-prepared precursors and target MgO nanoparticles. In comparison with polymers PEG and PVP, solvent EG plays an important role in controlling the morphology and diameter uniformity of MgO nanoparticles.