Structural determination of the Fe-modified zirconium oxide

Nanocomposite system Fe/ZrO2 prepared by sol-gel synthesis was studied by t he EXAFS, XRD and Mossbauer methods. According to the data of all the metho ds phase composition of the system depends on the percentage of Fe. Only th e tetragonal ZrO2 structure is found at high Fe concentration, but at low c oncentration up to 1wt% of Fe, the formed ZrO2 is a mixture of monoclinic a nd tetragonal structures. It seems that for greater concentrations, the iro n produces two-dimension layer structures. It was revealed that the iron is located on the external surface of the (111) plane of the ZrO2 nanoparticl es, namely as isolated ions at concentrations less than one monolayer. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.