X. Bokhimi et al., TETRAGONAL NANOPHASE STABILIZATION IN NONDOPED SOL-GEL ZIRCONIA PREPARED WITH DIFFERENT HYDROLYSIS CATALYSTS, Journal of solid state chemistry, 135(1), 1998, pp. 28-35
Sol-gel zirconia was prepared with zirconium n-butoxide and HCl, H2SO4
, C2H4O2, and NH4OH as hydrolysis catalysts, Samples were characterize
d with DTA and TG analysis, X-ray powder diffraction, and FTIR spectro
scopy, The structure of the crystalline phases was refined by the Riet
veld method, When samples were annealed below 300 degrees C, they lost
weight and had an amorphous structure that, by annealing at higher te
mperatures, crystallized into nanostructures. For H2SO4 as hydrolysis
catalyst, the amorphous structure was stable even at higher temperatur
es, which was probably caused by the presence of SOx ions in the struc
ture, The local order in the amorphous phase was similar to the local
order in the tetragonal zirconia, Crystallization of the amorphous pha
se produced tetragonal and monoclinic nanophases, with the tetragonal
as the main phase. Both phases had a similar average crystallite size,
By annealing, the tetragonal nanophase, which was more stable when C2
H4O2 was the hydrolysis catalyst,,vas transformed into the monolinic n
anophase, Since not only OH- ions in the structure were detected with
FTIR spectroscopy but also Zr vacancies were measured with X-ray powde
r diffraction in the zirconia crystalline structure, we propose that t
hese defects stabilized the tetragonal phase, Both defects disappeared
when samples were annealed at high temperatures, which brought about
the irreversible transformation of the tetragonal into the monoclinic
structure, (C) 1998 Academic Press.