Synthesis, characterization and thermal stability of CeO sub(2) stabilized ZrO sub(2) ultra fine nanoparticles via a sol-gel route

• Published in: Journal of Wuhan University of Technology. Materials science edition 2016-12, Vol.31 (6), p.1245-1249
• Main Authors: Jia, Tiekun, Min, Zhiyu, Long, Fei, Liu, Ming, Fu, Fang, Wang, Xiaofeng, Sun, Guang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Fourier transforms; Infrared spectroscopy; Nanoparticles; Sol gel process; Synthesis; Transmission electron microscopy; X-ray diffraction; Zirconium dioxide
• ISSN: 1000-2413; 1993-0437
• DOI: 10.1007/s11595-016-1520-7

CeO sub(2) stabilized ZrO sub(2) ultra fine nanoparticles were successfully synthesized via a simple and effective sol-gel synthetic approach by using zirconylchloride octahydrate, cerium nitrate hexahydrate, and citric acid as starting materials. A series of techniques, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetry (TG), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and N sub(2)-sorption analysis, were used to characterize the structure and morphology of the as-prepared samples. XRD studies indicate that the as-synthesized sample is of well crystallized tetragonal phase of CeO sub(2) stabilized ZrO sub(2) with high purity. TEM images show that the as-synthesized sample is composed of a large number of fine dispersive nanoparticles with an average size about 10 nm. The as-synthesized tetragonal CeO sub(2) stabilized ZrO sub(2) sample was heated at different temperatures in order to evaluate its thermal stability. The exprimental results reveal that the as-synthesized tetragonal CeO sub(2) stabilized ZrO sub(2) sample exhibits excellent stability without the occurrence of phase transformation.