The synthesis of nanocrystalline powders of zirconia often produces the tetragonal phase, which for coarse-grained powders is stable only at high temperatures and transforms into the monoclinic form on cooling. This stability reversal has been suggested to be due to differences in the surface energies of the monoclinic and tetragonal polymorphs. In the present study, we have used high-temperature oxide melt solution calorimetry to test this hypothesis directly. We measured the excess enthalpies of nanocrystalline tetragonal, monoclinic, and amorphous zirconia. Monoclinic ZrO 2 was found to have the largest surface enthalpy and amorphous zirconia the smallest. Stability crossovers with increasing surface area between monoclinic, tetragonal, and amorphous zirconia were confirmed. The surface enthalpy of amorphous zirconia was estimated to be 0.5 J/m 2 . The linear fit of excess enthalpies for nanocrystalline zirconia, as a function of area from nitrogen adsorption (BET) gave apparent surface enthalpies of 6.4 and 2.1 J/m 2 , for the monoclinic and tetragonal polymorphs, respectively. Due to aggregation, the surface areas calculated from crystallite size are larger than those measured by BET. The fit of enthalpy versus calculated total interface/ surface area gave surface enthalpies of 4.2 J/m 2 for the monoclinic form and 0.9 J/m 2 for the tetragonal polymorph. From solution calorimetry, the enthalpy of the monoclinic to tetragonal phase transition for ZrO 2 was estimated to be 1071 kJ/mol and amorphization enthalpy to be 3472 kJ/mol. J ournal

A commercial surface area analyzer and Calvet-type microcalorimeter were combined for measurements of heats of gas–solid interactions, providing enhanced resolution, flexibility, and throughput compared to conventional methods. Integral adsorption enthalpies for half monolayer coverage on HfO2 and ZrO2 surfaces were found to be in the range −130–190 and −110–170kJ per mole of gaseous H2O for differently prepared monoclinic phases and −70 and −90kJ∕mole for tetragonal phases from precipitation. The surface enthalpy for anhydrous tetragonal ZrO2 was derived as 1.23±0.04J∕m2 from water adsorption and high-temperature solution calorimetry data.

The enthalpies of formation for the compounds (RE3+)PO4, (where RE = Sc, Y, La–Nd, Sm–Lu) were determined by oxide-melt solution calorimetry. Calorimetric measurements were performed in a Calvet-type twin microcalorimeter in sodium molybdate (3Na2O · 4MoO3) and lead borate (2PbO · 2B2O3) solvents at 975 K. The experiments were carried out using both powdered single crystals grown by a flux technique and powders synthesized by precipitation. Formation enthalpies were derived from the drop-solution enthalpies for (RE)PO4, RE oxides, and P2O5. Enthalpies of formation for the (RE)PO4 compounds with respect to the oxides at 298 K become more negative with increasing RE3+ ionic radius; i.e., in going from ScPO4 (−209.8 ± 1.0 kJ/mol), to LuPO4 (−263.9 ± 1.9 kJ/mol), to LaPO4 (−321.4 ± 1.6 kJ/mol). From structural considerations, a similar trend is expected for the isostructural RE vanadates and arsenates, as well as for the tetravalent actinide orthosilicates.

.66. Dk, 68.37.Lp Crystallization of hafnia and zirconia and their alloys with silica and lanthana was studied in bulk and thin film samples by thermal analysis, X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy. Crystallization temperatures of hafnia and zirconia increase by more than 300 °C with increase of surface/interface area of the amorphous phase. Crystallization temperatures of zirconia and hafnia alloys with silica and lanthana increase with dopant content and exceed 900 °C for 50 mol% SiO 2 and LaO 1.5 . Energies for tetragonal HfO 2 and ZrO 2 interfaces with amorphous silica were derived from their crystallization enthalpies from silicates as 0.25 ± 0.08 and 0.13 ± 0.07 J/m 2 , respectively. The crystallization pathways in bulk powders and films of zirconia and hafnia can be interpreted as resulting from thermodynamic stabilization by the surface energy term of tetragonal and amorphous phases over monoclinic.

A joint experimental and computational study of noble gas adsorption in the metal−organic framework (MOF) material HKUST-1 has been carried out. Using a standard gas adsorption analyzer fitted with a cryostat, isotherms were measured for Xe, Kr, Ar, and Ne at optimum temperatures for the determination of loading-dependent heats of adsorption using the Clausius−Clapeyron equation. Direct calorimetric measurements for Kr and Xe adsorption provide comparable heats of adsorption. A detailed analysis of the experimental data alongside complementary grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulations led to the conclusion that the strongest binding for noble gases occurs in and around the small tetrahedral pockets and not at the accessible Cu(II) sites in the structure. Synchrotron X-ray and neutron powder diffraction experiments with in situ gas loading confirm the assignment of preferred binding sites inferred from the adsorption measurements and simulations.