XPS Study of MgO Nanopowders Obtained by Different Preparation Procedures Available to Purchase

Three different samples of nanoscale magnesium oxide were synthesized using an “aqueous wet chemical method” and a “surfactant method”. In the first case, MgO was obtained by gelation/precipitation from a solution containing Mg²⁺ while in the surfactant method a micellar liquid is created by adding the Mg²⁺ solution to the surfactant. In this last case two different surfactants have been used: Brij 56 and Triton 100-x. In this work, the influence of the preparation procedure on the surface properties is investigated by XPS. Besides the wide scan spectrum, detailed spectra for the Mg 1s, Mg 2p, O 1s and C is regions and related data are presented and discussed. The XPS analysis shows the presence of magnesium carbonate in the outermost layers. Carbonate species are more evident in the samples obtained by the surfactant method whereas no significant differences can be observed by using different surfactants. Moreover, in all the nanopowders, both MgO and Mg(OH)₂ are evident.