Study of the magnesia additive on the characterization of zirconia–magnesia composite sphere

Zirconia composite with varying amounts of magnesia was prepared by sol–gel technique. A series of carefully designed experiments were conducted to obtain data needed to assist the comparison of the resultant composites in terms of surface area, pore diameter, pore volume, crystalline phase and their stability to temperature. The results show that the presence of magnesia can be helpful for stabilization of zirconia composite, and different amounts of magnesia doping result in ultimate composite materials with different properties. We can tailor the structural and surface characteristics through changing the reactant ratio of magnesium chloride to zirconyl chloride to cater for its various applications, such as catalysts, chromatographic packings and so on.