Abstract
A fine $\alpha$-Al2O3 powder was prepared by sol-gel process for membrane application. And it was carried out by adding 1.5wt% $\alpha$-Al2O3 powders(mean size : 87 nm) as seeds to the prepared sols and by controlling the heating schedule (the heating rate and the soaking time) to prevent the microstructural change, which occured during $\theta$-to $\alpha$Al2O3 phase transformation. The seeded $\alpha$-Al2O3 particles acted as the heterogeneous nucleation sites for the $\alpha$-Al2O3 nucleation during the transformation of $\theta$- to $\alpha$-Al2O3 and resulted in increasing the driving force of phase transformation to activate the formation of $\alpha$-Al2O3 phase at 82$0^{\circ}C$. By $\alpha$-Al2O3 seeding and controlling of heating condition the phase transformation of $\theta$- to $\alpha$-Al2O3 was accomplished at low temperature and the grain growth process was depressed. Therefore, the unsupported membrane could be fabricated in $\alpha$-Al2O3 . The average diameter of pores in the fabricated membrane was 7 nm and the porosity was 47%.
