Hydrothermal synthesis of zirconia nanoparticles from commercial zirconia

Recently, it was observed that nanostructured zirconia (ZrO2) powder exhibits enhanced performance in many applications. In this study, a hydrothermal method was used for the synthesis of nano-crystalline ZrO2 powder from a fully monoclinic commercial zirconia. The products were characterized through X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results of SEM showed that after hydrothermal treatment under alkali condition, a different morphology from the commercial zirconia was obtained and XRD results showed that moreover to monoclinic phase (28%), cubic and tetragonal phases (72%) formed. According to TEM observations and XRD analysis, it was found that the nano-sized zirconia has an average particles size of 15-30 nm. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.