Effects of precursor on the morphology and size of ZrO2 nanoparticles, synthesized by sol-gel method in non-aqueous medium

Abstract

Pure zirconium oxide (ZrO 2 ) nanoparticles with diameters 10-25 nm were synthesized from ZrOCl 2 .8H 2 O and Zr(SO 4 ) 2 .H 2 O with benzyl alcohol as non-aqueous solvent medium using sol-gel method. Sodium lauryl sulfate was added as surfactants to control the particle size. The synthesized ZrO 2 nanoparticles have a mixture of tetragonal and monoclinic structure. The XRD showed the purity of obtained ZrO 2 nanoparticles with tetragonal and monoclinic phase and the crystallite size for ZrOCl 2 .8H 2 O precursor was estimated to be 18.1 nm and that from Zr(SO 4 ) 2 .H 2 O was 9.7 nm. The transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopic studies also shows different sizes of nanoparticles and different morphology depending on the precursor used for the synthesis of ZrO 2 nanoparticles.

Fast and Tunable Synthesis of ZrO2 Nanocrystals: Mechanistic Insights into Precursor Dependence

“…c-ZrO2 is applied in oxygen sensors, t-ZrO2 is used as high performance transformation-toughened ceramics and can catalyze ethanol formation from syngas, while m-ZrO2 will catalyze isobutanol formation from syngas and is important for gate dielectrics and bioactive coatings. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] The tetragonal and cubic phase are not stable at room temperature under thermodynamic equilibrium, but they can be stabilized via the incorporation of divalent and trivalent cations (Mg 2+ , Ca 2+ …). 10,11 Reducing the crystallite size of ZrO2 below 30 nm can have the same effect.…”

“…Sol-gel methods and some solvothermal methods produce poorly crystalline particles and require an additional crystallization step at high temperatures, giving rise to highly agglomerated ZrO2 NCs. 5,[14][15][16][17][18][19] Other methods suffer from the formation of mixed ZrO2 phases 5,20 and in general high temperatures and/or long reaction times 2,4,9,21 are required. These drawbacks depend on a combination of different factors: the selected synthesis method, presence or absence of pressure, difference in precursor solution or pH… One of the most appealing synthesis routes was introduced by Niederberger et al and uses a solvothermal autoclave method in benzyl alcohol to create a variety of crystalline metal oxide NCs (ZrO2, HfO2, In2O3, Ga2O3 …) at moderate temperatures.…”

Synthesis and Dielectric Studies of Monoclinic Nanosized Zirconia

“…The best metal oxide to replace Silicon dioxide is hafnia or zirconia (HfO 2 /ZrO 2 ). The particles when synthesized in the magical dimension scale of nanometer [1] have wide applications with the improvement of the electrical, mechanical, and optical properties of any compound due to the increase in surface area. Zirconia, a metal oxide, is expected to be invariant with higher thermal expansion ratio in an FET configuration.…”

Nanostructured titanium dioxide average size from alternative analysis of Scherrer's Equation

“…D values from XRD analysis [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] and TEM [1,18,19] have been reported. However, some discrepancies were found between the D values from XRD analysis and other techniques, such as TEM.…”

“…The XRD analysis has been used both structural refinements by the Rietveld method [20] and to determine crystal size [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. To estimate more accurately the D value from XRD analysis, GONÇALVES et al [4] have exploited the correction in the width βo using Caglioti equation, while RAITANO et al [9], PORKODI AND AROKIAMARY [12], PAL AND CHAUHAN [14] have taken correction factor K as about 0.9.…”