Effect of thermal treatment on the physicochemical properties of VOx/MgO powders synthesized using the glycine-assisted solution combustion method

Abstract

Solution combustion synthesis (SCS) is an effective and viable solvent assisted synthesis method for metal oxide nano materials such as magnesium oxide (MgO) and/or vanadium oxide supported on magnesium oxide (VOx/MgO). The method offers the advantage of being straight put in producing materials of desirable morphological and physicochemical properties due to varying fuels used in the synthetic process. In this work, calcined and uncalcined MgO and VOx/MgO powders were synthesized using the glycine-assisted SCS method to investigate the effect of heat treatment on the morphological and physicochemical properties of the synthesized materials. The synthesized powders were characterized using powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The findings provide insights into the variations in structural morphology, thermogravimetric behaviour and phasic composition of the powders upon the addition of vanadium oxide and on heat treatment. The observed differences in both the calcined and uncalcined VOx/MgO phases and the corresponding larger surface areas in the former highlighted the effect of heat treatment on the powders. These were complemented by the TGA results which revealed that the weight loss percentages were higher for the uncalcined VOx/MgO than for calcined material.