Structural and Morphological Control in the Preparation of High Surface Area Zirconia

Abstract

The methods for the formation of zirconia including precipitation from aqueous salts, sol-gel synthesis from zirconium alkoxides, and the templated synthesis using surfactants are described in this review. The surface areas obtained vary widely but invariably decrease upon prolonged calcination. Digestion of hydrous zirconia and incorporation of dopants such as lanthanum, yttrium, or sulfate ions can increase the surface area and thermal stability. However, these methods also affect the crystal phase of zirconia. The transformation from the metastable tetragonal to the monoclinic phase occurs during the cooling phase of calcination. Mechanisms for the stabilization of the tetragonal phase are discussed. Zirconia with well-ordered mesopores or in the form of hollow spheres can be prepared but lack thermal stability, unless doped with phosphates, silicates or sulfates.

Cluster-assembled cubic zirconia films with tunable and stable nanoscale morphology against thermal annealing

“…Parameters such as active surface area, surface roughness, and substrate topography are also critical for cell culturing 28 or for proteins and enzyme adsorption; 29 high surface area has significant advantage in catalysing gas reactions due to the increased adsorption capacity, and can often provide more active sites thus giving higher catalytic activity. 30 It is thus of primary importance to develop fabrication strategies for nanostructured zirconia films able to control not only the structure, phase, and dimensions of the individual nanoparticles, but also their assembling towards the intelligent design of properties such as specific area, micro and nanoscale porosity, and surface corrugation, that must be resilient against thermal treatments and annealing.…”

Synthesis of zirconium oxide nanoparticle by sol-gel technique

“…The use of sol-gel method in producing zirconia has gain research interest. The chemistry involved in sol-gel reaction can be expressed as [1]:…”

Stabilization of cubic phase in scandium‐doped zirconia nanocrystals synthesized with sol‐gel method

“…The processes of hydrolysis, polymerization and condensation proceeded according to the following reactions:…”