Biomimetic Synthesis Of The Micro/nanostructure ZrO₂ Using Biological Materials As Templates

ZrO₂ has been applied widely in many fields such as catalysts and catalytic supports, adsorption and separation, metal oxide-semiconductor devices due to its thermal and chemical stability. The structure, morphology and size of ZrO₂ are closely related to its properties and influence its potential applications. Therefor, it is important to control the structure, morphology and size of ZrO₂. In this paper, the method of biomimetic synthesis which is enlightened by biomineralization thought was introduced into experiment. We have prepared a variety of micro-/nanostructure ZrO₂. It realizes the control of the morphology of ZrO₂ by the role of the template and inducing which are provided by yeast and pollen. The main contents are as following:1. The concepts of biological mineralization and biomimetic synthesis were stated. The situation, characteristic and advantage of the inorganic materials, which had a variety of morphology and were synthetized by the method of biomimetic synthesis, were reviewed, analyzed and summarized.2. The micro-/nanostructure hollow, nuclear-shell and solid ZrO₂ microspheres have been prepared using yeasts as bio-templates by the method of biomimetic synthesis. The experiment studied the morphology, strcture and the strcture of porous of micro-/ nanostructure ZrO₂ by adjusting temperature, pH, the time of water-bath and ageing. Especially, the experiment conditions about forming hollow microspheres were analysed .The mechanism model of the different morphology microspheres which were prepared by the double roles of the template and inducing of the yeast was put forward.3. The micro-/nanostructure triangular ZrO₂ has been prepared by the method of room-ageing, microwave and ultrasound using Camellia pollen grains as template. The experiment studied the impact of synthetic methods and experimental condition for the morphology, strcture, and the strcture of porous of micro-/nanostructure triangular ZrO₂.The interaction between pollon and the precursor of ZrO₂ was studied by means of IR .The results showed that the pollon played the roles of template and inducing.4. In experiment, ZrO₂ particals cumulated into porous, and we probed the properties of hydrogen storage of micro-/nanostructure triangular ZrO₂ primarily. The differences and reasons of the hydrogen storage properties of the product were analysed.