Preparation of magnesium hydroxide nanoflowers from boron mud via anti-drop precipitation method

Journal Article · Fri Aug 15 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Materials Research Bulletin

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/J.MATERRESBULL.2014.04.021· OSTI ID:22420534

Ma, Xi ^[1]; Ma, Hongwen ^[1]; Jiang, Xiaoqian ^[1]; Jiang, Zhouqing ^[1]

---

1. School of Materials Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083 (China)

Highlights: • We use the anti-drop precipitation method for synthesis of magnesium hydroxide. • Boron mud which is solid waste from a borax factory is used as the magnesium source. • The magnesium hydroxide nanoflowers are prepared in a short time. • The as-prepared magnesium hydroxide can be used as an effective flame retardant. - Abstract: Using boron mud as the starting material, the flower-like magnesium hydroxide (MH) has been successfully prepared via anti-drop precipitation method. The effect of NH{sub 3}·H{sub 2}O concentration, aging time, and surfactant on the morphology of MH was investigated. The optimum precipitation conditions are dropping MgSO{sub 4} solution in 5% NH{sub 3}·H{sub 2}O solution, with 3% polyethylene glycol as surfactant, aging for 30 min. XRD, SEM, FI-IR, and TG/DTA have been employed to characterize the as-prepared samples. XRD reveals that MH with high purity has the brucite structure. SEM images show that the flower-like MH exists in the form of mono-disperse well uniform spherical aggregation with diameter of 3–5 μm. TG/DTA shows a total percentage of weight loss 33.6% with a well-defined endothermic peak near 381.3 °C corresponding to the decomposition of MH. Furthermore, it reports that the extremely fast primary nucleation is of significance for crystal growth of MH.

• OSTI ID: 22420534
• Journal Information: Materials Research Bulletin, Journal Name: Materials Research Bulletin Vol. 56; ISSN MRBUAC; ISSN 0025-5408
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
AGGLOMERATION
AGING
AMMONIA
BORAX
BORON
CONCENTRATION RATIO
CRYSTAL GROWTH
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
DECOMPOSITION
DIFFERENTIAL THERMAL ANALYSIS
MAGNESIUM HYDROXIDES
MAGNESIUM SULFATES
NUCLEATION
POLYETHYLENE GLYCOLS
PRECIPITATION
SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
SYNTHESIS
X-RAY DIFFRACTION