A novel method for preparing surface-modified Mg(OH)2 nanocrystallines

In this paper, we present a novel method for preparing surface-modified Mg(OH)2 nanocrystallines (ncs), in which stearic acid (SA) as a surface modified agent was first introduced into a conventional azeotropic distillation (AD) system (n-butanol and wet colloid). During the modified AD process, SA could react with the exterior hydroxyls of Mg(OH)2 ncs to form surface modified layer, which would prevent the possibility of hard agglomeration of Mg(OH)2 ncs and change the surface character of Mg(OH)2 ncs from hydrophilicity to hydrophobicity. Therefore, the surface-modification and drying of Mg(OH)2 ncs was simultaneously processed. In addition, the structure and the properties of surface-modified Mg(OH)2 ncs were characterized by TEM, FT-IR, XRD, TGA, CAM (contact angle measurement), and the forming mechanism was also discussed.