Nano-forsterite powder made of natural silica sand
Nano-forsterite powder with natural silica sand and magnesium powder as the raw materials have been successfully synthesized. The silica sand was purified followed by a coprecipitation process to obtain colloidal silica. The magnesium powder was dissolved in a chloric acid solution to obtain MgCl2 solution. The nanoforsterite powder was synthesised using a sol-gel method which included the mixing the colloidal silica and the MgCl2 solution with various aging and filtering processes. The samples were dried at 100 °C using a hot plate and then the dried powders were calcinated at 900 °C for 2 hours.The samples were characterized for their elements and phase compositions using X-ray Flourescence (XRF) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) methods, respectively. The diffraction data were qualitatively analyzed using Match!2 software and quantitatively using Rietica software. The crystallite size was verified using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). Results of XRD data analysis showed that the forsterite content reached up to 90.5% wt. The TEM average crystallite size was approximately 50 nm.
The XRD pattern (CuKa radiation) for samples calcined at 900⁰C for 2 hours.
The TEM image of sample calcined at 900 ºC for 2 hours