The preparation of nanoparticle zirconium phosphate

Nano-sized zirconium phosphate was synthesized by the solvothermal method using stoichiometric amounts of inorganic zirconium and phosphate salts by surfactant anilin (An) and polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate (Tween). The formation of zirconium phosphate was investigated by means of XRD. The pure zirconium phosphate crystalline phase was obtained under mild synthesis conditions; this indicated that ethanol replaced part of water as solvent favoring the formation of zirconium phosphate. TEM showed that zirconium phosphate particles were basically regular in shapes, which included cube, hexagon and sphere. These particles were well dispersed and the mean grain size was about 100 rim, meanwhile, the successive processes occurring during the growth of hexagonal structure were investigated through TEM. SEM proved again that the morphology of zirconium phosphate was regular and most particles had similar grain size. (c) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.