Nanoscale morphological characteristics of particles of the synthetic natisite and paranatisite powders

The article is devoted to obtaining of the new information in the development nanomineralogy ideas for functional materials. We performed the synthesis of the titanosilicate natisite Na2TiSiO5, which was special as material with Na+-ion conductivity suitable for preparing hi-tec ceramics. As the main synthesis method was chosen natisite autoclave hydrothermal synthesis, using as precursors the products of ammonium fluoride processing of the leucoxene Yarega deposit, allowing in the future to solve the problem of complex processing of mineral raw materials is important for the Komi republic. We found out that increasing synthesis time from six to twenty-four hours results in a pure natisite phase after a paranatisite phase. Nanoscale morphological characteristics for all powders were defined by the method of atomic force microscopy (AFM). We showed that the samples after six hours exposition are rough not only at micro-, but also at nanoscale. It is possible that these powders will be used as sorbents with the maximal surface area of composing particles. According to AFM the samples after twenty-four hours exposition represented well formed crystalline growth twins of cross type with practically smooth pinacoid surfaces and rare microscale inclusions. Nanoscale roughness on the flat areas was not determined for the samples of this powder. The ceramics, produced from such particles, should possess the highest ion-conductive characteristics.