Formation of porous alumina assisted by resorcinol-formaldehyde gel

Abstract

The synthesis of porous alumina, which has been widely used in high temperature applications, from aluminium precursor mixed with RF gel via sol-gel method accompanied with polymerization was investigated. It is found that the aluminium precursor can react with RF and further catalyze the polycondensation. The networked Al/RF gel is transformed into the porous alumina after the calcination step. In addition, high porosity is still maintained even though high calcination temperature of 1200oC is applied. From the experimental results, the aluminium acetylacetonate is the suitable aluminium precursor in order to produce the porous alumina achieving high surface area of 68 m2/g. It is disclosed that the pores are large mesopores. Moreover, the α phase of alumina representing high stable phase is obtained. In this research, other factors, such as aging time, aluminium content in RF gel, aging temperature and catalyst type, affecting the synthesis of the porous alumina will be discussed in detail.