The effect of adding different amount of spinning additives on preparation of nano Alumina fibers using a combined method of sol gel and electrospining

Alumina nano fibers were produced using a combined method of sol-gel and electros pinning method. The sol was first prepared by mixing of tri-isoproxide aluminum in aqueous solution of nitric acid. In the next step, ethylene glycol, acid lactic and poly vinyl alcohol were added to the solution .Finally, the sol was then heated at 80 °C to obtain gel. The resulting gel was converted to nano fibers of aluminum oxide by electrospinning method. The nano fibers were dried at 60 °C for 24 h and sintered at 1200 °C for 2 h. The results of XRD and FTIR showed that, in all samples the dominant phase was the corundum phase. To decrease the sintering temperature, magnesium nitrate hexahydrate (MgN2O6 * 6H2O) and sodium ethoxylate (SiC8 H2o O4) were added to the sol containing 10% Polyvinyl alcohol. The XRD and FTIR analysis of this sample indicated the presence of corundum phase when the sintering temperature of 1000°C was used. Accordingly, the energy consumption was reduced as the sintering temperature decreased about 200°C by adding the additives. The SEM and TEM analysis also showed formation of non-agglomerated nano fibers with diameters of 41nm when 10% polyvinyl alcohol and 2% sodium ethoxylate (SiC8 H20 O4) was added to the sol.