Abstract

In this paper, scandia, yttria stabilized zirconia (SYSZ) nanoparticles were prepared by a wet chemistry method based on the Pechini-type sol-gel method. In this approach, zirconium oxynitrate, scandium and yttrium nitrate, citric acid (CA) and ethylene glycol mono butyl ether (EGM) were used as the source of Zr4+, Sc3+, Y3+, the chelating and solvent agent, respectively. In this study, the effect of EGM:CA ratios and calcination temperatures on the structure, morphology and the particle size of SYSZ have been investigated. The microstructure of the products was characterized by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), inductively coupled plasma emission spectroscopy (ICP), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy. The SYSZ nanoparticles synthesized with EGM:CA mole ratio 4:1 and calcined at 700 °C, have average diameter of ~15 nm and purity of 97.58%. Also, the optical properties of the as-prepared samples at different calcinations temperatures have been investigated.

Keywords: Nanostructured materials, polymeric complex method, Scandia, Yttria doped Zirconia (SYSZ).