Influence of calcination temperature on phase transformation and grain size of electrospun zirconium oxide fibers

Abstract

Zirconium oxide fiber was prepared by electrospinning technique and solgel processing from zirconium acetate and poly(methyl methacryate) (PMMA) as precursor. Calcination of these structures between temperature of 450 and 1000°C resulted in the formation of zirconium oxide fiber whose diameters ranged from 1000 to 500 nm. The samples of calcination at 450 and 500°C were observed of only in the tetragonal phase. The tetragonal phase and monoclinic mixed phase appeared between 600 and 900°C. After calcination at 1000°C, only the monoclinic phase was identified in the XRD patterns. Grain size increased with increasing calcinations temperature. Pure monoclinic phase with grain size of 25.70 nm was obtained from the calcination temperature of 1000°C. The activation energy for grain growth of electrospun zirconium oxide fiber was estimated to be 20.48 kJ/mol.

Electrospun zirconia nanofibers and corresponding formation mechanism study

“…Among the inorganic nanofibers, zirconia nanofibers exhibit wide applications, because of its high melting temperature (2750°C), high dielectric constant, refractive index and hardness and low thermal conductivity (2 W/m K) [7]. The preparation of zirconia nanofibers with good mechanical properties and stability at high temperature remains a great challenge.…”

Fabrication of Zirconia Fibers by a Sol-Gel Combined Rotational Centrifugal Spinning Technique

“…Q was estimated to be 24.18 kJ.mol -1 from the slope of lnD vs 1/T, which is higher than that reported for zirconia nanofibers (20.48 kJ.mol -1 ). 1 The activation energy for the growth of grains in zirconia fibers indicates whether the grains are active for growth or not. Lower activation energy indicates more active grain growth.…”