Synthesis of long ZrTiO4 fibers by a sol-gel process free of organic components

Long ZrTiO4 fibers have been synthesized through a sol-gel process using titanium sulfate and zirconium oxychloride octahydrate as starting materials without any organic component. In this system, SO42- anions are a chelating reagent and can coordinate to metal ions (Ti and Zr) with its oxygen atoms which make the inorganic polymer easily form and the sols spinnable. The ZrTiO4 fibers with an average length of ca. 40 cm are composed of nanoparticles (particle size <5 nm) of the order of 600 nm to 5 mm in diameter. The transformation of the green gel fibers to ZrTiO4 fibers has been investigated by TGA, FTIR, XRD, SEM, TEM and UV techniques. Furthermore the microstructures of the ZrTiO4 fibers have also been characterized, and the fiber density is up to 98.2% of its theoretical value.