Study of de-watering from the gelatinous precipitate formed during co-precipitation of Nd-YAG powder

Neodymium doped Yttrium Aluminium Garnet (Nd:YAG) ceramics have been synthesised using coprecipitation technique and high temperature vacuum sintering. Gelatinous like precipitates were obtained when precursors of Nd, Al and Yb-nitrate solutions are co-precipitated using ammonia co-precipitant. De-watering from the gelatinous like precipitates is a big challenge and it possesses difficulty in filtration. Evaporation of water by heating resulted in strong agglomerated powder. Different agents were used to ease the filtration process, which is correlated with the phase in the calcined powder.