Preliminary Synthesis and Characterization of Mesoporous Nanocrystalline Zirconia

A novel method to prepare mesoporous nano-zirconia was developed. The synthesis was carried out in the presence of PEO surfactants via a solid-state reaction. The materials exhibit a strong diffraction peak at low 16 angle and their nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherms are typical of type IV with H1 hysteresis loops. The pore structure imaged by TEM can be described as wormhole domains. The tetragonal zirconia nanocrystals are uniform in size (around 1.5 nm) and their mesopores focus on around 4.6 nm. The zirconia nanocrystal growth is tentatively postulated to be the result of an aggregation mechanism. This study also reveals that the PEO surfactants can interact with the Zr-O-Zr framework to reinforce the thermal stability of zirconia. The ratio of NaOH to ZrOCl2, crystallization and calcination temperature play an important role in the synthesis of mesoporous nano-zirconia.