CHEN Ting 1,2, CAO Fang 1, ZHA Jianrui 1, ZHANG Xiaojun 1, JIANG Weihui 1,2, LIU Jianmin 2, HU Qing 1
(1. Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, Jingdezhen 333403, Jiangxi, China; 2. National Engineering Research Center for Domestic &
Building Ceramics, Jingdezhen 333001, Jiangxi, China)
Abstract: A smooth and dense zirconium silicate (ZrSiO4) film was prepared via nonhydrolytic sol-gel (NHSG) method by using zirconium tetrachloride (ZrCl4) and tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as raw materials, lithium fluoride (LiF) as mineralizer, and surfactant as addition agent,respectively. The phase composition and the microstructure of the thin film were studied by means of X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), respectively, and the organo-functional groups of the xerogels were investigated by fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The experiment results show that in contrast with nonionic surfactants polyethylene glycol (PEG 200) and polyvinyl butyral (PVB), and cationic surfactant cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB), the cationic surfactant tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBAB) is more suitable to prepare the dense ZrSiO4 film due to its low boiling point and short hydrophobic groups. After reflux, the addition of 3wt.% TBAB to the ZrSiO4 sol does not disturb the Si-O-Zr condensation polymerization process, resulting in the dense and pure ZrSiO4 film formation.
Key words: Film; Zircon; Non-hydrolytic sol-gel method; Surfactant