Synthesis and characterisation of aluminium-zirconium based organic-inorganic materials via sol-gel route

Monolithic and transparent hybrid Al-Zr gels were obtained by the reaction of homogeneous mixtures of metal alkoxides: (Al(OBus)(3) + Zr(OPr)(4)) with Butan-1,3-diol at room temperature, without solvent, catalyst, or water. T he products have been characterized by IR spectroscopy, DTA and TGA. The re sults show that the diol has reacted with the mixture of alkoxides leading to the monolithic transparent gels in which both organic-inorganic (-Al-O-R -O-Zr-) and inorganic (-Al-O-Zr-O-) bridges are formed. Xerogels obtained after the drying of gels were pyrolysed at different temp eratures in air. The structure and morphology of the obtained materials wer e studied by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method. At 1200 degreesC, the materials were composed of alpha Al2O3, t-ZrO2 and m-ZrO2.