Abstract: The invention comprises high purity substantially spherical metal oxide particles having one or more predominant particle sizes formed from one or more metal alkoxides. In one embodiment there is disclosed multimodal particle size distributions of such substantially spherical metal hydroxide particles while a second embodiment describes the formation of such particles using more than one metal alkoxide to form either a mixed metal hydroxide particle or a layered particle comprising a core of a first metal hydroxide and at least one layer of an additional metal hydroxide.

Abstract: The invention comprises a process for the production of high purity substantially spherical metal oxide particles using seed nuclei without introducing impurities into the desired product which comprises forming a metal alkoxide vapor; reacting the vapor with a non-reactive gas containing sufficient water vapor to hydrolyze a portion of the metal alkoxide vapor to form solid seed nuclei of metal hydroxide; cooling the remaining metal alkoxide vapor containing the metal hydroxide seed nuclei sufficiently to form an aerosol comprising finely divided metal alkoxide liquid condensed on the solid metal hydroxide seed nuclei; hydrolyzing the metal alkoxide aerosol by contact with water vapor to hydrolyze the metal alkoxide liquid to form substantially spherical metal hydroxide particles; and calcining the substantially spherical metal hydroxide particles to form the corresponding metal oxide.