YU Youhua, YOU Qi, LIU Jianlei, XIONG Tiantian

(School of Material Sicence and Engineering, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, Jingdezhen 333403, Jiangxi, China)

Abstract: Zircon powders were prepared by sol-gel method at low temperature using zirconium oxychloride and tetraethoxysilane as raw materials, deionized water and ethanol as dissolvants, NaF as a mineralizer to promote crystallization of zircon powder. The characterization techniques such as XRD and SEM are used to analyze the phase composition and the microstructures. The results show that the original synthesis temperature of zircon is as high as 1250 ℃ without the introduction of any mineralizers to precursor sols, when the temperature is raised up to 1500 ℃, the synthesis ratio of zircon powder is not very high, however, by adding sodium fluoride as a mineralizer to the sols,the crystalline phase of zircon appears at 550 ℃ and the zircon powder which is calcined at the temperature of 800 ℃ not only has a high synthesis ratio, but also shows good crystallinity.

Key words: zircon; sol-gel method; mineralizer; sodium fluoride