Sol-gel Cyclic Self-Production of α-Al2O3 Nanoseeds as a Convenient Route for the Low Cost Preparation of Dense Submicronic Alumina Sintered Monoliths

The excellent properties of α-Al2O3 are extremely dependent on the microstructural characteristics of the ceramic materials, which stress out the importance of designing new processing routes and/or improving the existing ones to reach a rigorous microstructural control on the final material. Here, a novel sol-gel self-production method for α-Al2O3 seeds and their application in-situ is demonstrated. The authors show that within an α-Al2O3 seed production cycle with input of a low-cost raw material, pseudoboehmite is adequate for the production of high-densified submicronic α-Al2O3 monoliths.