New approach for measuring gelation rate during synthesis of ZnO/SiO2 gel

Turbidimetric study of fluorite nucleation in solution

“…The connection of induction time with crystal growth rather than with nucleation was further confirmed in a more detailed analysis yielding edge free energies of 59 pJ/m at 291 K and 52 pJ/m at 296 K [9]. A similar analysis with analogous results was carried out for nanosized particles of ZnO/SiO 2 by Abel-Aal et al [6].…”

“…It has been used in a number of investigations of crystallization kinetics, often as a replacement of visual determination of induction time [4,5], a rather primitive use, indeed, in view of its potentials. A somewhat more elaborate use of the gelation kinetics of ZnO/SiO 2 gels was presented in a paper appearing while the present manuscript was in preparation [6]. Compared to other methods of detecting the appearance and growth of a new phase, such as measurement of pH or conductance, it has the advantage that no probe has to be immersed in the supersaturated solution, as any foreign object could easily induce nucleation.…”

Synthesis and Optical Property of ZnO/SiO2 Nanocomposite Cryogels

“…Zinc oxide is a hot semiconductor material due to its unique electronic, optical and acoustical properties [1][2][3][4][5][6] . ZnObased composites are of considerable interest in ceramics technology 7 for applications as sensors, semiconductor devices and varistors 8 , which usually call for smaller especially nanoscale particles with special morphology. In order to control particle sizes and their distributions of the composites, silicon dioxide is popular as host matrices 9 for insertion of ZnO nanoparticles due to its unique properties 10 .…”