JIANG Weihui, CHENG Si, ZHU Qingxia, LIU Jianmin, MIAO Lifeng

(Key Laboratory of Advanced Ceramics of Jiangxi Province, School of Material Science and Engineering, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, Jingdezhen, Jiangxi 333001,China)

Abstract:Zircon nanopowder has been synthesized via a non-hydrolytic sol-gel route using ZrCl4 and Si (OC2H5)4 as precursors,lithium fluoride as a mineralizer and sodium chloride (NaCl) as a dispersing agent. The effects of NaCl on the synthesis and dispersion of zircon nanopowder were investigated by means of XRD and TEM. The results show that the zircon nanopowder with good dispersibility can be obtained by calcining the mixture of solid NaCl with xerogel at 750℃ with the precalcination temperature of the xerogel being 530℃ , and the molar ratio of NaCl/ZrCl4 being 3. The excessive NaCl restrains the synthesis of zircon while the insufficient NaCl is not beneficial to the dispersion of powder. 

Key words:non-hydrolytic sol-gel method; zircon; nanopowder; agglomeration; sodium chloride