Control over porosity in ceramics is demonstrated here. Varying the size of the organic substituents in the precursor carboxylate–alumoxane [Al(O)x- (OH)y(O2CR)z]n nanoparticles allows the pores to be contained within the grains of the resulting α-Al2O3. The Figure shows a single crystal of α-Al2O3 in which 20–50 nm pores (white areas) run throughout the crystal.
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Callender et al. (2000) studied this question.