Amorphous mesostructured zirconia with high (hydro)thermal stability

Here, combining the evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) method and the liquid crystal templating pathway, mesostructured amorphous zirconium oxides have been prepared by a soft templating method without addition of any heteroelement to stabilize the mesopore framework. The recovered materials have been characterized by SAXS measurements, nitrogen adsorption-desorption analysis and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The obtained mesostructured zirconia exhibits a high thermal stability. An in situ XRD study performed as a function of temperature shows that the amorphous ZrO 2 , obtained after removal of the pore templating agent (pluronic P123), begins to crystallize in air from 420 °C. Amorphous mesostructured ZrO 2 also presents a high hydrothermal stability; these materials are not degraded after 72 hours in boiling water. Amorphous mesostructured zirconia with high thermal stability and hydrothermal stability in boiling water has been obtained without addition of stabilizer.