Combustion Synthesis and Characterization of Fe2O3-ZrO2 Nanocomposite Oxides

Abstract

The ZrO2, Fe2O3, and Fe2O3-ZrO2 composite oxides with 2, 5, 10 and 20 mol% of Fe2O3 were prepared by combustion method and characterized by XRD, SEM, and UV-Vis techniques. The phase transformation behavior of zirconia in the composite oxide and the thermodynamics of the combustion process calculations were carried out find the standard heat of formation of the composition oxides. XRD study indicates selective stabilization of the tetragonal phase of ZrO2 in the combustion synthesized composite oxide. The effect of fuel nature and content on the phase formation and transformation was studied in details. SEM study indicate the material to be porous and of low density. The UV-Vis spectra of the combustion synthesized sample indicate well dispersion of the Fe2O3 species in zirconia matrix in the form of isolated and cluster species. Thermodynamic calculations preformed indicate increase exothermicity of the reaction with iron content.