Sol–gel derived nanoscale ThO2 using nonionic surfactant agents

Abstract

In this research, two different types of sinterable ThO2 nanopowders were synthesized by surfactant assisted sol–gel process using thorium nitrate as a starting material, and Triton X100 and Polysorbate 80, as two different structure directing agents. Both of the prepared gels were dried and characterized by thermogravimetry–differential scanning calorimetry (TGA–DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The dried gels were finally calcined and, the produced powders were subjected to XRD, Brunauer–Emett–Teller (BET), Barret–Joyner–Halenda (BJH) analyses and SEM studies. Detailed analyses show that thorium dioxide powders of different crystallite sizes, surface areas, pore volumes and sizes and sinterabilities were prepared using two different surfactants. This synthesizing route yielded the well crystallite nano-sized ThO2 powders with relatively high surface area and good sinterability at low temperature of 1400°C. The powder synthesized using Triton X100 surfactant exhibited higher surface area, pore volume, pore size and crystallite size. It contained some aggregated particles along with the smaller seeds. Furthermore, the pellet which is fabricated by powder synthesized using Triton X100 had a higher density and better grain growth, to some extent.