Hydrothermal synthesis of Yttrium Hydroxide and Oxide nanotubes

• Main Author: Koh, Janice Shi Wei.
• Other Authors: Gan Chee Lip
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Materials::Nanostructured materials; DRNTU::Engineering::Materials::Ceramic materials; DRNTU::Engineering::Materials::Material testing and characterization
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/15599
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This report demonstrates an investigation on a hydrothermal method to synthesise yttrium hydroxide and post-annealing to obtain yttrium oxide nanotubes. For this study, sodium hydroxide was chosen as the solvent with yttria powder as starting material. Three parameters: solvent concentration, mass of yttria powder and temperature were varied to investigate their effects on nanotube growth. The optimised conditions were found to be 0.3 g of yttria starting powder reacted with 3 M sodium hydroixde at 190°C. The growth of yttrium hydroxide nanotubes can be explained with a dissolution-nucleation recrystallisation anisotropic growth mechanism. The formation of yttrium oxide nanotubes was found to be a dehydration transformation reaction from yttrium hydroxide with retention of morphology.