Influence of fuel to oxidizer ratio on the alumina-zirconia nanopowders synthesized by sol-gel autocombustion method

Nanostructured zirconia toughened alumina composite has been prepared by sol-gel autocombustion method. Ammonium bicarbonate has been used as a new fuel and metal nitrates as precursor reagents. The influence of fuel to oxidizer ratio of the precursor on the combustion rate and phase transformation was investigated. To characterize the products XRD, FTIR, TEM and BET analyses were used. XRD patterns showed that the phases present were g -Al2O3 and t-ZrO2 in all samples and crystallite sizes raise with increasing amount of fuel. Results FTIR also confirmed the formation ofg -Al2O3 and t-ZrO2 phases in corroboration with X-ray studies in all samples. TEM characterization on composite powders as obtained by the gel combustion synthesis process revealed that nanosized particles of both alumina and zirconia can be obtained with a homogeneous dispersion of zirconia nanoparticles in the alumina matrix

Keywords:

Sol-gel autocombustion , Transmission electron microscopy , Zirconia toughened alumina