Synthesis of mesoporous metal oxide by the thermal decomposition of oxalate precursor.

A synthesis method was newly developed to prepare mesoporous transition metal oxides by thermal decomposition of transition metal oxalates, and the method was advantageous in its versatility, low cost, and environmental friendliness. Various mesoporous transition metal oxides were successfully synthesized by the newly developed method, such as magnetic γ-Fe2O3, CoFe2O4, and NiFe2O4, MnxOy, Co3O4, and NiO. Morphology, structure, and magnetic property of the synthesized mesoporous transition metal oxides were characterized by XRD, TG-DTA, SEM, TEM, quantum design SQUID, and N2 sorption techniques. From the dependency of the heating rate, calcination time, and calcination temperature on the metal oxide structures, it was revealed that the calcination temperature was the major factor to determine the final mesoporous structure of the metal oxides. The mesoporous structures were well constructed by their corresponding metal oxide nanoparticles resulting from oxalate thermal decomposition.