Mechanochemical synthesis of lanthanum aluminate by grinding lanthanum oxide with transition alumina

Grinding lanthanum oxide (La₂O₃) with Al₂O₃ was conducted to investigate their mechanochemical reactions to form lanthanum aluminate (LaAlO₃) powder using a planetary ball mill. Grinding for 120 min allowed us to obtain single-phase LaAlO₃ with a large surface area when transition alumina was used, whereas no formation of LaAlO₃ was achieved when α-Al₂O₃ was used. The mechanochemical process can be applied to synthesize other rare-earth (RE) aluminates (REAlO₃) from mixtures of a rare-earth oxide and transition alumina.