MgO/MgAl 2 O 4 nanocomposites synthesis by plasma torch from aqueous solution of MgCl 2 and AlCl 3 salts and studying the effect of raw material concentration on the products

Fabrication of MgO/MgAl 2 O 4 nanocomposites from aqueous solution containing a combination of magnesium chloride (MgCl 2 ) and aluminum chloride (AlCl 3 ) salts by the plasma torch method has been investigated and the effect of relative concentration of these two salts in aqueous solution on the quality of synthesized nanocomposites was studied experimentally. Four solutions with different relative concentrations of MgCl 2 and AlCl 3 were examined as raw material for the production of MgO/MgAl 2 O 4 nanocomposites by plasma torch. In this experiment, a water container was used for quenching and collecting the synthesized nanoparticles. In addition, to purify and improve the quality of the synthesized nanocomposites, thermal post-treatment was performed by heating them in a furnace up to 1000 °C after the process. The analysis results showed that with respect to the relative concentrations of MgCl 2 and AlCl 3 in the raw material solutions and based on the reaction stoichiometry of magnesium aluminate spinel (MgAl 2 O 4 ) formation, MgO/MgAl 2 O 4 nanocomposites with different MgO to MgAl 2 O 4 ratios were produced with 85% ± 3% purity in the final products. Furthermore, this study showed that water is an excellent quencher in the synthesis of nanoparticles by plasma torch method. In this experiment, it was also demonstrated that thermal post-treatment was very effective method in purifying and improving the quality of MgO/MgAl 2 O 4 nanocomposites synthesized by this procedure.