Study On Preparation Of ZrO₂ Aerogel Using Supercritical CO₂ Drying

ZrO₂ aerogel has wide applications in many fields such as catalytic science, materials science or electricity. It can be used as good catalystic materials, structural ceramic and functional ceramic raw materials, electrode materials. ZrO₂ aerogel was prepared by sol-gel process associated with the supercritical ethanol drying procedure. But this procedure in which ethanol was used as drying media had some limitations in application to industry, for example, ethanol is flammable and explosive, the operation temperature is high. So the studying of the new preparation technique in which CO₂ is used as drying media has important practical meaning. On the other hand, the effects of preparation conditions of sol-gel process on the microstructure and properties of the products were investigated in some researches, but the effects of operation parameters of the supercritical CO₂ drying procedure on the microstructure and properties of the products were reported rarely. So the studying of the supercritical CO₂ drying has also important academic significance.This research prepared the ZrO₂ aerogel with inorganic salt zirconium hydroxide by sol-gel process associated with the supercritical CO₂ drying procedure. The samples were characterized using BET, TG/DTA, XRD, SEM and TEM.This research analysed the mechanism of the supercritical CO₂ drying procedure. The influences of the supercritical temperature and pressure, the rate of CO₂ and drying time on specific surface areas, pore properties were investigated through orthogonal experiment. The results showed that the...