Hydrothermal assisted synthesis and hot-corrosion resistance of nano lanthanum zirconate particles

The nano La2Zr2O7 (LZ) particles with pyrochlore microstructure were successfully synthesized from a mixture of La(NO3)3, Zr(NO3)4 and C19H42BrN (CTAB) using hydrothermal assisted (HTA) synthesis which consists of two steps: hydrothermal treatment and calcination. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy were employed to study morphologies and phase compositions. The results suggest that HTA process led to very rapid synthesis of nano LZ compared to the conventional solid reaction process. The particles produced by HTA synthesis have cubic shape and the distribution of its grain size is from 10 nm to 30 nm. The present work demonstrates that the nano La2Zr2O7 produced via HTA synthesis which have better hot-corrosion resistance is an ideal material for thermal barrier coatings.