Synthesis of Biopolymer‐Derived Zirconium Carbide Powder by Facile One‐Pot Reaction

Zirconium carbide ( ZrC ) was synthesized by polycondensation and carbothermal reduction reactions from an organic–inorganic hybrid complex. A natural biopolymer Gum Karaya ( GK ) and zirconyl oxychloride octahydrate ( ZOO ) were used as the sources of carbon and zirconium, respectively. FTIR of as‐synthesized dried complexes revealed formation of Zr – O . Pyrolysis of the complexes at 1200°C/1 h under argon resulted in tetragonal and monoclinic zirconia which after heat treatment at 1400°C–1550°C transformed to zirconium carbide. Thermal analysis shows that the GK – ZOO complexes lost less mass than the pristine GK to 600°C. The intensity of exothermic decomposition decreases and shifted to higher temperature for the hybrid complexes indicating that zirconia induced thermal stability. A maximum ZrC yield of ~60 wt% is obtained for the intermediate GK – ZOO ratio of 1:2. Particles pyrolyzed for 1 h at 1550°C were coarser (5–10 μm) with flakes for lower GK – ZOO weight ratio, but were spheroidal with narrow size distribution (~1 μm) with increasing GK – ZOO weight ratio.