Microwave-hydrothermal synthesis of ceramic powders

We report herein for the first time, the use of microwave-hydrothermal processing in catalyzing the synthesis of crystalline unary oxides such as TiO₂, ZrO₂ and Fe₂O₃ and binary oxides, such as KNbO₃ and BaTiO₃. While the combination of microwave and hydrothermal techniques has been used in the last few years to dissolve all kinds of powders (e.g. aluminosilicate rocks) rapidly for chemical analysis, we report here the use of this technique for synthesizing fine powders. A new layered alumina phase, which can be intercalated with ethylene glycol has also been synthesized. The effect of different parameters such as concentration of chemical species, time and temperature on the crystallization kinetics of the above phases has been investigated under microwave-hydrothermal conditions using microwaves of 2.45GHz frequency.