Influence of combustion reagent and microwave drying method on the characteristics of nano-sized Nd³⁺:YAG powders synthesized by the gel combustion method

Nanosized Nd³⁺ doped Y₃Al₅O₁₂ (Nd³⁺:YAG) powders have been synthesized by the gel combustion method using different combustion reagent such as citric acid, ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA), glycine, glycol and the combination of citric acid and EDTA with different ratio. The pure YAG phase was obtained at relatively low temperature around 950 °C for citric acid or EDTA and 1,050 °C for glycine or glycol as combustion reagent, respectively by the gel combustion method. It was found that citric acid and EDTA are the better combustion reagents and yield rather homogeneous and well dispersed club-shape Nd³⁺:YAG samples, and the particle size synthesized by EDTA is larger than that by citric acid. Moreover, the particle size of Nd:YAG was enlarged when the ratio of EDTA was increased in the combination reagent, and the better dispersion of YAG was obtained when the ratio of citric acid to EDTA was 1:1 compared to that of other ratios and pure one as combustion reagent. On the other hand, the results showed that the microwave assisted in drying process of gel to xerogel produced more smaller Nd³⁺:YAG particles in size, and more homogeneous dispersion of the Nd³⁺:YAG particles than that of the traditional dry method.