Highly-ordered mesoporous nanocrystalline yttria-stabilized zirconia synthesized through evaporation-induced self-assembly method

An ordered tetragonal mesoporous 16 mol% yttria-stabilized zirconia (8YSZ) has been successfully prepared by evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) using tri-block copolymer Pluronic F127 as a structure-directing agent and inorganic chlorides as precursors in a non-aqueous medium. The arrangement of mesopores was identified by small-angle X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). A distinct face-centered tetragonal lattice was able to describe such an ordered mesopore arrangement. The structure and crystallite size of pore-walls were determined by wide-angle X-ray powder diffraction and high-resolution TEM. The well-ordered face-centered tetragonal mesoporous 8YSZ with average pore size of 4.3 nm and high specific surface area of 134 m2/g and the pore-wall is composed of ∼ 4.8 nm nanocrystalline 8YSZ domains.