Sol–gel preparation and characterization of gadolinium aluminate

This paper reports on the results concerning the sol–gel preparation of nanocrystalline gadolinium aluminate (GdAlO3, GAP) using different starting materials. The gadolinium nitrate or gadolinium oxide as Gd raw compounds and aluminium nitrate as Al source were used in the sol–gel processing. The metal ions, generated by dissolving starting materials of metals in the diluted acetic acid were complexed by 1,2-ethanediol to obtain the precursor for the GAP. The phase transformations, composition and micro-structural features in the gels and polycrystalline samples were studied by thermal analysis (TGA/DTA), powder X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (IR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The XRD patterns of the GAP ceramic sintered at 1000 °C using gadolinium oxide as starting material were identical with the single-phase perovskite GdAlO3 composition.