Effects on the crystallite growth behavior of LaPO4 nanopowders and its mechanical properties

The effects of pH of the reaction solution and the concentration of phosphoric acid on the crystal growth behavior of LaPO4 crystallites were investigated and the mechanical properties of rare-earth phosphates were compared. As a result, the concentration of phosphoric acid of 10% was beneficial to the crystal growth of LaPO4 nanocrystalline. When the pH value of the reaction solution was 2, the size of LaPO4 crystallites increased gradually with the increasing reaction temperature, and the smallest crystallite size of 43.27 nm was obtained after heattreatment at 1000 degrees C. Simultaneously, the activation energy for crystal growth of LaPO4 nanocrystalline was relatively lower (26.82 kJ mol- 1). With the decreasing radii of rare-earth ions, the hardness, Young's modulus and fracture toughness of the bulk rare-earth phosphates exhibited a reduced tendency, resulted from the increase of porosity under the same preparation process.