Low-temperature synthesis of γ-alumina nanocrystals from aluminum acetylacetonate in nonaqueous media

A low-temperature synthesis of γ-alumina nanocrystals from aluminum acetylacetonate in nonaqueous media is presented. The γ-alumina nanocrystals are successfully prepared with benzylamine as the solvent at 200°C. The good agreement of the crystal size extracted from XRD with the particle size from TEM suggests that the nanoparticles are single crystals. XRD characterization provides evidence for the formation of boehmite, similar to the product obtained in acetophenone. The as-synthesized material exhibits good crystallinity, which makes a subsequent calcination step superfluous. Varying the solvent from benzylamine to acetophenone and DMSO enables the preparation of boehmite nanocrystals with high crystallinity and uniform particle size and shape.