• Khoshkhoo, M. Samadi
• Kiani Rashid, A. R.
• Samadi Khoshkhoo, M.
• Eckert, J.
• Vyalikh, A.
• Eckert, Jürgen
• Eshghi, H.
• Oswald, S.
• Rounaghi, S. A.
• Rashid, A. R. Kiani
• Scudino, S.
• Gruner, W.
• Vanpoucke, Danny E. P.
• Scheler, U.

Abstract

Hexagonal Aluminium nitride (h-AlN) is an important wide-bandgap semiconductor material which is conventionally fabricated by high temperature carbothermal reduction of alumina under toxic ammonia atmosphere. Here we report a simple, low cost and potentially scalable mechanochemical procedure for the green synthesis of nanostructured h-AlN from a powder mixture of Aluminium and melamine precursors. A combination of experimental and theoretical techniques has been employed to provide comprehensive mechanistic insights on the reactivity of melamine, solid state metal-organic interactions and the structural transformation of Al to h-AlN under non-equilibrium ball milling conditions. The results reveal that melamine is adsorbed through the amine groups on the Aluminium surface due to the long-range van der Waals forces. The high energy provided by milling leads to the deammoniation of melamine at the initial stages followed by the polymerization and formation of a carbon nitride network, by the decomposition of the amine groups and, finally, by the subsequent diffusion of nitrogen into the Aluminium structure to form h-AlN. ; publishedVersion

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• surface
• Carbon
• aluminium
• semiconductor
• milling
• Nitrogen
• nitride
• ball milling
• ball milling
• amine
• decomposition