The preparation of uniform spherical cobalt phosphate particles by the aging of a solution containing CoSO
4 and NaH
2PO
4 at 80°C in the presence of urea and surfactant has been investigated and their properties were characterized by various means. The anionic (sodium dodecylsulfate, SDS), cationic (cetyltrimethylammonium chloride, CTAC), and nonionic (polyoxyethylene (20) nonylphenyl ether, NP-20) surfactants were employed for the investigation. The highly uniform spherical cobalt phosphate particles were obtained under the following condition : [CoSO
4] =5 mmol/dm
3, [NaH
2Pa
4] =5 mmol/dm
3, [urea] =1 mol/dm
3, and [surfactants] =0-50 mmol/dm
3. The particle size was obviously changed depending on the surfactant used. The average diameter of the spherical particles was found to change from 400 to 1700 nm, froth 200 to 1700 nm, and from 1100 to 1700 nm for SDS, CTAC, and NP-20 systems, respectively. The particles produced at 4 mmol/dm
3 SDS exhibited a high selective adsorption of H
2O. This fact was explained by the molecular sieve effect of the slit-shaped layer structure. This selective adsorption of H
2O was further pronounced by the particels prepared at above 20 mmol/dm
3 SDS because of the adsorption of H
2O into the interstices of fine primary particles in addition to the molecular sieve effect. A similar result was observed for the CTAC system.
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