Synthesis conditions and sintered ZrW2O8 structure

This paper discusses synthesis condition effect on the structure and morphology of ZrW2O8 using thermal decomposition of precursor ZrW2O7(OH,Cl)2·2H2O prepared by hydrothermal method. It was observed that for hydrothermal precursor synthesis the optimal concentration of hydrochloric acid in the reaction mixture was about 2.3 M and sintering time amounted to 36 hours. The precursor morphology was in the form of needle-like particles and loose irregular shape agglomerates. The pure nanoscale ZrW2O8 powder was obtained by precursor heating at 570°C for 1 hour and has needle-like particles with an intrinsic block structure. The average block size was 50 nm. The average transverse size was less than 1 µm, the longitudinal particle size varied from 500 to 5000 nm.