Characterization of Zirconia Nanoparticles Grown by Sol-Gel Method

Zirconia (ZrO2) nanoparticles have been prepared by sol gel technique a room temperature. Amorphous powder of ZrO2 was collected by centrifuging the precipitation repetitively at least for 10 times in ethanol. The structural, optical morphological and compositional properties of the samples were investigated by means of X-ray diffraction, UV-visible spectroscopy, Energy dispersive analysis and transmission electron spectroscopy. After heat treatment at 800 degrees C, the monoclinic phase of ZrO2 was revealed. The energy band gap was found to be decreased for annealed sample (from 5.27 eV to 4.90 eV) due to the enhancement in the cluster size. The particle size approximately 15 to 25 nm was observed as-prepared and annealed sample. The ratio of Zr/O was found to be increased from 0.41 to 0.45 after heat treatment.