Abstract
Crystalline zirconium oxide aerogel was synthesised by supercritical drying of a precursor gel prepared in the zirconium n-propoxide, n-propanol, acetylacetone and water system. This aerogel retained the initial fractal structure of the gel state. Aerogel samples were heated at moderate temperatures and studied by X-ray diffraction and small angle X-ray scattering. Small angle X-ray scattering results strongly suggested that the structural modifications follow the linear Cahn's theory for spinodal decomposition. Upon higher temperature annealing, the low- q intensity maximum, present on small angle X-ray scattering curves, began to move towards higher- q vectors before moving back to smaller angles. The aerogel sintering mechanism changed and crossed from sintering of crystalline mass fractal aggregates towards the conventional behaviour.
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