Magnetic Properties of Synthetic Gehlenite Glass Microspheres

In the paper, gehlenite amorphous microspheres were prepared by the flame synthesis of a powder precursor. In the first step, the precursor was prepared from a stoichiometric mixture of CaCO₃, Al₂O₃ and SiO₂ by a standard solid-state reaction method. Next, the precursor was sprayed into a CH₄-O₂ flame with the temperature of around 2200°C and molten droplets of synthetic gehlenite were rapidly cooled by distilled water. Structural and detailed magnetic properties were studied by the optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction and QD SQUID magnetometer. The gehlenite microspheres show a complex magnetic behaviour that is a function of the temperature and the magnetic field, e.g. diamagnetism and paramagnetism at 300 K and 2 K, respectively.