Solution combustion synthesis and sintering behavior of porous MgAl2O4 powders

Porous MgAl2O4 powders were synthesized with a solution combustion route using a mixture of glycine and urea with the glycine/urea molar ratio of 2/9 as fuel. For the comparison purpose, denser powders were also combustion synthesized using urea as fuel. The porous/denser structure, characteristics (e.g. crystallite size and specific surface areas) and sinterability of the two powders were investigated in detail. Experimental results disclosed that the as-prepared porous powders exhibited a much lower degree of agglomeration, smaller average agglomerate particle size and larger surface areas and thus far higher sintering behavior than the denser powders.