It is commonly accepted that the presence of H2O during the synthesis and phase transformation of alumina causes decreasing temperatures of these processes since it increases the atomic motilities. In addition to this general concept, in this work H2O vapor is also shown to play an important role on the influence of additives in alumina based systems. Alumina powders containing Mn or Mg were synthesized by the polymeric precursor method under H2O vapor or dry atmosphere during the crystallization stage. Each atmosphere promoted a different phase and an explanation for the phenomenon was given bases on the gamma-Al2O3 crystallization dependence on the H+ presence due to the required cationic vacancies compensations.
gamma-alumina; additives
