SYNCHROTRON-RELATED STUDIES ON THE DYNAMIC AND STRUCTURAL ASPECTS OF ZIRCONIA SYNTHESIS FOR CERAMIC AND CATALYTIC APPLICATIONS

Zirconia is an important component material for several industrial app lications. In these studies we have used intense radiation sources, pr imarily synchrotron radiation, to shed new light on the properties of zirconia and its synthesis via existing industrial routes. Certain ''s tatic'' techniques have been used to probe the atomic structure of pre cursor compounds used in the synthesis of zirconia, whereas time-resol ved techniques were required to dynamically capture the various calcin ation stages during the heating section of the synthesis cycle. Finall y the important tetragonal to monoclinic zirconia transformation durin g cooling was studied in detail using time resolved energy dispersive diffraction. Altogether what emerges is a new unfolding story on the v arious stages of zirconia synthesis, in which synchrotron radiation ha s played a vital role.