Abstract
A series of mesoporous SiO 2ZrO 2 aerogels with various zirconia content (10–90 wt%) were prepared by the sol–gel method followed by supercritical drying. The characterization of aerogels is performed by XRD, FT-IR, 29Si liquid-state NMR, and BET-N 2 adsorption. The results showed that (i) the aerogels have type VI (BDDT) profile which is the typical of mesopores in the interval between 2< D p <50 nm; (ii) the specific surface areas varied from 340 to 730 m 2/g with ( S BET) MAX=735.5 m 2/g for the aerogel with 10 wt% zirconia and the surface areas decreased with the increase of zirconia; (iii) all the aerogels with different zirconia content remained amorphous or poorly crystallized after calcination in air at 500 °C; (iv) a large number of SiOZr bands existed in the aerogels indicating a homogeneous distribution of the components on the atomic scale. In addition, using inorganic salt as zirconium source instead of the expensive and toxic zirconium alkoxide is very economic.
Published Version
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