Effects of precursor on the morphology and size of ZrO2 nanoparticles, synthesized by sol-gel method in non-aqueous medium

Pure ZrO2 nanoparticles with diameters 10-25 nm were synthesised from ZrOCl2.8H2O and Zr(SO4)2.H2O with benzyl alcohol as the non-aqueous solvent medium using the sol-gel method. Sodium lauryl sulphate was added as a surfactant to control the particle size. The synthesised ZrO2 nanoparticles have a mixture of tetragonal and monoclinic structure. XRD showed the purity of the ZrO2 nanoparticles with tetragonal and monoclinic phase and the crystallite size for ZrOCl2.8H2O precursor was estimated to be 18.1 nm and that for Zr(SO4)2.H2O was 9.7 nm. TEM and SEM also showed different sizes of nanoparticles and different morphology, depending on the precursor used for the synthesis of the ZrO2 nanoparticles.