MECANOSÍNTESIS DE MANGANITAS DE LANTANO: EFECTO DE LA RELACIÓN EN PESO BOLAS:POLVO

Abstract

Previous studies of the authors have shown the mechanochemical processing is an effective technique for the synthesis of lanthanum manganites. The novelty of this work is to study the effect of the ball to powder weight ratio, B: P|W,  on the process efficiency for this type of manganites. A stoichiometric mixture of precursor (Mn2O3+La2O3) was synthesized by a mechano-chemical processing modifying the ratio B: P|W   from 2 to 20. The mechano-chemical process was performed at room temperature in a SPEX 8000D mixer/mill, using hardened steel balls and vials, in air atmosphere. X-ray diffraction, XRD, was used to elucidate the phase transformation as function milling time and the time to obtain complete conversion of the manganite. The analysis of impurity (iron) was carried out using Inductively Coupled Plasma, ICP. The particle size distribution of this powder material was measured with laser diffraction. The results show that increasing in the B: P|W ratio from 2:1 to 20:1 decreases the milling time necessary for the synthesis, from 6.5 to 2.5 hours, respectively, but it increases notably the contamination degree, from 0.27 to 1.7% Fe in weight under these same conditions. An appropriate B:P|W ratio, reduces the time of synthesis and decreases the contamination level.