Zirconium Oxide X-ray Diffraction Data Processing By Rietveld Analysis Method

Abstract

X-ray Diffraction experiment was carried out on zirconium oxide synthesized from zircon sand (ZrSiO4), originally extracted from mines located in the Indonesian Island of Borneo. Zirconium hydroxide (Zr(OH)4) was extracted from ZrSiO4 after filtering the sample by a hydro-metallurgy process. Zirconium hydroxide was calcinated to obtain zirconium oxide due to decomposition of hydrogen compound. The diffraction experiment on zirconium oxide was carried out in the 2 scattering angle range of 20o - 100o. JCPDS data asserts that the zirconium oxide sample contains three distinct phases, ZrO, Zr2O and ZrO2. Results of the Rietveld analysis refinement procedure seems to agree with the three-phase model assumption. The result shows that the fractional composition of the zirconium oxide is 0.69% ZrO, 40.2% Zr2O, and 59.12% ZrO2 with structure models of face centered cubic, primitive cubic and orthorhombic respectively. Fourier analysis electron density map of the (001) plane shows the absence of covalent bonds between Zr-O atoms and that the electrons are asymmetrically distributed around the atoms with a strong vibrational direction in the tetrahedral direction. Journal of Basic and Applied Scientific Research, Vol. 3, No. 4. Hal. 742-746 ISSN 2090-4304