Rapid surfactant-free synthesis of Mg(OH)2 nanoplates and pseudomorphic dehydration to MgO

James M. Hanlon; Laura Bravo Diaz; Giulia Balducci; Blane A. Stobbs; Marek Bielewski; Peter Chung; Ian MacLaren; Duncan H. Gregory

doi:10.1039/C5CE00595G

Rapid surfactant-free synthesis of Mg(OH)₂ nanoplates and pseudomorphic dehydration to MgO†

James M. Hanlon,^a Laura Bravo Diaz,^ab Giulia Balducci,^a Blane A. Stobbs,^a Marek Bielewski,^b Peter Chung,^c Ian MacLaren^d and Duncan H. Gregory*^a

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* Corresponding authors

^a WestCHEM, School of Chemistry, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
E-mail: Duncan.Gregory@glasgow.ac.uk

^b European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) Institute for Energy and Transport, Westerduinweg 3, 1755 LE Petten, The Netherlands

^c School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, Gregory Building, Lilybank Gardens, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

^d SUPA School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

Abstract

Magnesium hydroxide nanoplates ca. 50 nm in thickness can be prepared over minute timescales via hydrothermal synthesis in a multimode cavity (MMC) microwave reactor. This approach allows ca. 1 g of single-phase Mg(OH)₂ to be synthesised in less than 3 minutes without the requirement of surfactants or non-aqueous solvents. The hydroxide nanomaterial dehydrates at temperatures >200 K below that of the equivalent bulk material and can be utilised as a precursor for the pseudomorphic synthesis of nanoplates of MgO as investigated by TG-DTA-MS, PXD and SEM measurements. Equally, the pseudomorphic synthesis can be performed by irradiating the Mg(OH)₂ nanomaterial with microwaves for 6 minutes to produce single-phase MgO.

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Article information

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C5CE00595G
Article type: Paper
Submitted: 10 Apr 2015
Accepted: 15 Jun 2015
First published: 15 Jun 2015
This article is Open Access

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CrystEngComm, 2015,17, 5672-5679

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Rapid surfactant-free synthesis of Mg(OH)₂ nanoplates and pseudomorphic dehydration to MgO

J. M. Hanlon, L. Bravo Diaz, G. Balducci, B. A. Stobbs, M. Bielewski, P. Chung, I. MacLaren and D. H. Gregory, CrystEngComm, 2015, 17, 5672 DOI: 10.1039/C5CE00595G

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