Effect of Drying Route and Sintering Temperature on Zirconia Nanoparticle Synthesis for Filler Application in Polymer Composites

• Published in: Transactions of the Indian Institute of Metals Vol. 76; no. 6; pp. 1475 - 1486
• Main Authors: Prakash, Ved, Pradhan, Subhrajit, Acharya, S. K., Pal, S. K., Majhi, Sudhakar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New Delhi Springer India 01.06.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Chemical synthesis; Chemistry and Materials Science; Corrosion and Coatings; Cost analysis; Drying ovens; Fillers; Freeze drying; Materials Science; Metallic Materials; Nanoparticles; Original Article; Polymer matrix composites; Room temperature; Sintering; Stability analysis; Thermal stability; Thermodynamic properties; Tribology; Yttrium oxide; Zirconium dioxide; Zirconia; Characterization; Tetragonal phase; Drying route; Nanoparticle; FESEM
• DOI: 10.1007/s12666-022-02836-7
• ISSN: 0972-2815

This paper aims to study the synthesis of zirconia nanoparticles within the size of 100 nm using different drying routes and various sintering temperatures, for possible use as a nano-filler in polymeric composites. The nanoparticles are synthesized by cost-effective co-precipitation method. The x-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirms stabilization of tetragonal phase at room temperature by the use of yttria dopant. Further, the characterization studies, such as FTIR, EDX, DLS, BET, BJH, TGA and FESEM are carried out to study the structural, morphological and thermal properties of prepared nanoparticles. The result revealed that oven dry route produces smaller nanoparticle size (least particle size in the range of 33–64 nm at 900 °C) than freeze dry process. Furthermore, TGA analysis shows better thermal stability of zirconia precipitate synthesized by oven dry route. However, FESEM analysis of nanoparticles shows better spherical structure exhibited by freeze dry than oven dry route samples.