Abstract: Spinel and spinel-zirconia composite powder were synthesized by soft chemistry method using ［AlO₄Al₁₂(OH) ₂₄(H₂O) ₁₂］⁷⁺（abbreviated Al₁₃） as aluminum source. Precursor structure, reaction progress and material microstructure evolvement were characterized by ²⁷Al NMR, XRD, DSC-TG and FTIR. Spinel precursor was prepared by mixing Al₁₃ solution and magnesium slurry which was obtained by milling the mixture of MgCl₂·6H₂O and NaOH, and its component included Mg₆Al₂CO₃(OH)₁₆·4H₂O and β-Al(OH)₃. Spinel is formed from calcination of this spinel precursor at 600℃ for 1h, and only spinel is formed at even higher temperatures. Spinel-zirconia composite powder precursor is prepared by hydrolysis-precipitation process of Al₁₃, MgCl₂·6H₂O and ZrOCl₂·8H₂O solution. Spinel-zirconia composite powder can also be obtained from calcination of the precursor at 600℃. FTIR spectra of the Al₁₃ powder and spinelzirconia precursor show that the ［AlO₆］ absorption band shifts from 608cm^-1 to 601cm^-1 and ［AlO₄］ from 761cm^-1 to 723cm^-1.The result shows that Al₁₃ has obvious advantage in synthesis of spinel and spinelzirconia composite powders at low temperature because Al-O-Mg bond can be formed easily in precursors.

Key words: Al₁₃, spinel, spinel-zirconia, low temperature synthesize