Preparation of porous nano-magnesium oxide using a corn starch template method

Abstract

Nano-porous magnesium oxide was prepared using a corn starch template and a magnesium nitrate hexahydrate precursor, and characterized by TGA, XRD, FTIR, EDS, TEM, and BET surface area analysis. The results showed that porous magnesium oxide composed of nano-particles could be obtained using this method. The final magnesium oxide product was in the form of large flakes under low magnification, and the flakes were composed of small nano-scale particles under high magnification. The particle size of nano-porous magnesium oxide was 20–28 nm, the specific surface area was 29.37 m2/g, and the average pore diameter was 19 nm.