CTAB-assisted hydrothermal synthesis of nano-sized tetragonal zirconium dioxide

Nano-sized tetragonal zirconium dioxide has been synthesized by hydrothermal treatment, using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as template, zirconium oxychloride and ammonia as raw materials. The decomposition mechanism of zirconium oxychloride was analyzed by joint thermoanalysis; the phases, morphology and size of the resulting products are characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electronic microscopy. It is shown that tetragonal phase zirconium dioxide with good crystallinity, average particle diameter of 20 nm and no obvious agglomeration can be prepared by the hydrothermal treatment at 523 K for 18 h via the template control effect of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide.