A facile method for in situ growing nano-flaky γ-Al2O3 on the surface of Al–Si alloy sphere

In situ synthesis of a nano-flaky γ-Al2O3 layer coated on the surface of Al–Si alloy sphere is developed by a facile hydrolytic reaction in this work. The synthesized nano-flaky grains display morphologies vertically protruded from the surface of Al–Si alloy, and a higher adhesive strength with the substrate and specific surface area coating was obtained. Then the resulting samples were characterized by FT-IR, XRD, SEM, TEM, and a formation mechanism of flaky Al2O3 layer is also proposed. We propose that the unique structure shows great potential in catalyst support and such a facile synthesis strategy could be easily applied for other complex metal oxide nano-flake.