Mechanochemical reaction of lanthanum carbonate with sodium hydroxide and preparation of lanthanum oxide nanoparticle

The preparation of nano sized La2O3 powder by mechanochemical reaction of lanthanum carbonate with sodium hydroxide and subsequent heat treatment was studied using X-ray diffraction, differential thermal and thermo gravimetric analysis and transmission electron microscopy. It was found that the mechanochemical reaction process can be divided into two steps: the first step is the multi-phases mechanochemical reaction of lanthanum carbonate with NaOH to form amorphous lanthanum basic carbonate and lanthanum hydroxide, and the second step is the crystallization of basic lanthanum carbonate with the formula of La-2(OH)(2)(CO3)(2) . H2O under a quasi-hydrothermal synthesis condition caused by the mechanical ball-milling. The synthesized La2O3 powder appears clearly separated spherical-like monodisperse nano-size particles in which particle size ranges from 30 to 50 nm.