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Grain Size and Grain Size Distribution of Nanocrystalline Pr-doped Zirconia Powders Obtained in High Pressure Microwave Reactor

Agnieszka Opalińska 2,3Roman Pielaszek 2Cristina Leonelli 1Hubert Matysiak 3Witold Łojkowski 2

1. University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Via Campi 183, Modena 41100, Italy
2. Polish Academy of Sciences, High Pressure Research Center (UNIPRESS), Sokolowska 29/37, Warszawa 01-142, Poland
3. Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering (InMat), Wołoska 141, Warszawa 02-507, Poland

Abstract

A novel microwave reactor was used for hydrothermal synthesis of nanocrystalline praseodymium - doped zirconia powdres.
Properties of zirconia and Pr - doped zirconia powders strongly depend on shape, grain size, grain size distribution, phase composition and degree of crystallinity. The microwave driven hydrothermal synthesis permit to precisely control the reaction regime (time, power, pressure) and in consequence provide to expected properties of the resulting nanopowders.
This method is versatile permitting to obtain powders in the range 5 - 100 nm in a few minutes.
In this work we investigated the effect of process parameters on grain size and grain size distribution. It was determined using two methods. The first one was based on analysis of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images. The second one was based on analysis of the shape of x-ray diffraction (XRD) peaks. The two methods yielded similar results.

 

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Presentation: poster at E-MRS Fall Meeting 2004, Symposium G, by Agnieszka Opalińska
See On-line Journal of E-MRS Fall Meeting 2004

Submitted: 2004-08-09 12:21
Revised:   2009-06-08 12:55