Applications of Alumina:

1.Historical background:

Aluminum had been used to pottery in ancient times, but since 1746 German scientist J.H Pott. had got an oxide from alums which is alumina[1]. The price of alumina has been reduced and it has been used in many aspects.Such as ceramic, manufacture industry, buildings material and so on.[2]

2.Future potential of Alumina:

• Surface coating:  With the development of nanotechnology, the alumina can also used as the surface coating due to its properties of high melting temperature and other chemical properties like Alumina has very low chemical activity so it can apply on the surface protection of aerospace craft.[6]
• Catalyst: The reason that Alumina can be used as catalyst is due to the Adsorption capacity.Adsorption capacity depends on the specific surface area, although the specific surface area of Alumina is not big, however due to its open structure and nano meter effect it has high channel utilization and high surface activity, thus showing good adsorption capacity. The absorption and its chemical properties make alumina a good catalyst.[3]

3.Difficulties and improvement:  

There are still many problems that is hard to solve for example the surface properties and heat stability is hard to achieve controllable adjustment. The nano-structure is hard to control.In the future scientist will focus on controlling the growth of the crystal surface,so the surface properties of the catalysts can be precisely controlled, and the selective arrangement of the active metals on the surface can be realized, so as to improve the activity and selectivity of the catalysts.Without changing the morphology, control the suitable specific surface area, structure and thermal stability.[3]

ceramic plunge made of alumina[4]                                  Alumina catalyst[5]                                            Alumina surface coating[6]

References:

[1]Metal news metal ,Aluminum ,basic knowledge of aluminum. history background of aluminum,retrieved from: http://www.metalnews.cn/ys/show-116865-1.html

[2]Matmactch product ,application, Alumina retrieved from https://matmatch.com/

[3]Tang rui Lipeng.Synthesis and Application of Hierarchically Structured Nano-Alumina[J].Progress in chemistry,2012,2/3(24):.

[4]Ortech advanced ceramics on web, ceramics: alumina oxide ceramics Al2O3, retrieved from: https://www.ortechceramics.com/creamic-materials/alumina-ceramics/

[5]Tianjin xijinna environmental protection material technology co. LTD Alumina catalyst retrieved from

http://www.goepe.com/apollo/prodetail-tianjinshuzhi-9068928.html

[6]Wu xiaodong Weng rui Lu xiaohua Li hengde.Study on the structure and properties of plasma spraying alumina coating[J].Chinese rare earth,2002,23(1):.