Study of In Situ Formation of Magnesium Hydroxide Whisker via Basic Magnesium Chloride Whisker Regulated by Organic Parcels at Low Temperature

In this work, we demonstrate an in situ phase conversion from basic magnesium chloride(BMC) into magnesium hydroxide whisker by using polar organic solvent at low temperature. The morphology and phase composition of magnesium hydroxide whiskers prepared at different reaction temperature, alkali concentration and organic solvent were analyzed by X-ray diffraction(XRD) and scanning electronic microscope(SEM). It was found that when one of the organic solvents such as absolute ethyl alcohol, butanol, polyethylene glycol(PEG-400), acetone, et al. was selected as the template, the precursor BMC can transform into whisker-like magnesium hydroxide through precipitate transformation in low temperature and non-hydrothermal system. It can be reasonably explained that the regulation of Mg2+ solubility by those organic solvents and the sustained release of Mg2+ dissolution by organic adsorption played a significant role in the formation of magnesium hydroxide whisker via BMC whisker as the precursor.