High surface area neodymium phosphate nano particles by modified aqueous sol–gel method

Synthesis of nano rod shaped neodymium phosphate (NdPO4) particles with specific surface area as high as 107 m2g−1 and an average length of 50 nm with aspect ratio 5 was achieved using modified sol gel method. Crystallite size calculated from the X-ray diffraction data by applying Scherer equation was 5 nm for the precursor gel after calcination at 400 °C. NdPO4 was first precipitated from neodymium nitrate solution using phosphoric acid followed by peptization using dilute nitric acid and further gelation in ammonia atmosphere. The calcined gel powders were further characterized by surface area (Brunauer–Emmet–Teller nitrogen adsorption analysis), Transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, UV–vis and FT-IR analysis. Transmission electron microscopy confirms the formation of rod like morphology from the sol, gel and the calcined particles in nano size range. These particles could be compacted and sintered at as low as 1300 °C to a density of 98.5% (theoretical) with an average grain size of ∼1 μm.