Preparation and Characterization of γ- Alumina Nanoparticles

Metal complexes of Schiff base derived from the reaction of substituted salicylaldehydes with aliphatic and aromatic amines represent a series of compounds containing nitrogen, sulphur and oxygen ligand donor atoms that has been widely studied. Over the past few years, there have been many reports on their applications in biology including antibacterial, antifungal, anticancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimalarial and antiviral activity[1,2]. In the past few years, much attention has been focused on the research field of nano-crystalline oxide materials, both because of their fundamental importance and the wide range of potential technological applications. Alumina exists in a variety of metastable structures including γ-, η-, δ-, θ-, κ-and χ-alumina, as well as its stable α-alumina phase. Among these transitions, γ-alumina is one kind of extremely important nanosized materials. It is extensively used as catalyst, catalytic supports and adsorbents [3]. Alumina Al2O3 nanoparticles were synthesized by the thermal decomposition Method. To preparation of Alumina (III) complex, 1 mol of Aluminum nitrate Al (NO3)3.9H2O and 2 mol of salicylaldehyde (C7H6O2) were dissolved in 10 mL of ethanol to form homogeneous solutions. Few drops of ammonia solution were added until pH 6-8. Then thiourea solution was added dropwise to the above solution with stirring. The mixture was allowed to reflux under stirring for 8 h. The above complex was grinding steps to ensure the homogenrous powder then was heated at 820°C for 3 h in a conventional furnace. The white precipitate is obtained, filtered and washed with ethanol to remove the impurities, which results the Al2O3 nanoparticles. In the present paper, we report the synthesis of Al(III) salicylidenic schiff base complexes derived from thiourea and studied by elemental analysis (CHNS), FT-IR, UV-Vis spectroscopy, conductance measurement and magnetic moment. Then Al2O3 nanoparticles were synthesized from Al(III) Schiff base complexes by solid-state thermal decomposition method and identified by FT-IR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The mean size of as-prepared Al2O3 nanoparticles was around 17 nm from Debye-Sherrer equation. Range of particles size is 51nm and porous structured nanopartcles metal-oxide confirmed.