Fabrication of well-dispersive yttrium-stabilized cubic zirconia nanoparticles via vapor phase hydrolysis

The well-dispersive yttrium-stabilized cubic zirconia nanoparticles were fabricated via vapor phase hydrolysis process, and the as-synthesized cubic zirconia nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution electron microscopy (HRTEM) and N2 adsorption–desorption isotherm analysis. The results of XRD indicated that the pure cubic zirconia nanocrystals were obtained with 8 mol% yttrium atoms doping. And SEM and TEM observation showed the yttrium-stabilized cubic zirconia nanoparticles (8 mol% yttrium) were dispersive well, with an average crystallite size of 5 nm. The zirconia coatings were fabricated via the layer by layer (LbL) assembly using poly (allylamine hydrochloride) as polyelectrolyte and cubic zirconia nanoparticles as building blocks in order to illustrate its good dispersity. The quartz substrate coated on both sides with 10 layers of yttrium-stabilized cubic zirconia nanoparticles exhibited transmittance as high as 92.3%, which was decreased only one percent compared with bare quartz substrate. Moreover, the stable super-hydrophilic wetting property of the coating was obtained after a critical number of layers (10 layers) deposited onto the surface of quartz substrate, due to its porous structures.