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Synthesis of Biopolymer‐Derived Zirconium Carbide Powder by Facile One‐Pot Reaction
Author(s) -
Patra Niranjan,
Jayaseelan Daniel Doni,
Lee William Edward
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of the american ceramic society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.9
H-Index - 196
eISSN - 1551-2916
pISSN - 0002-7820
DOI - 10.1111/jace.13321
Subject(s) - zirconium , zirconium carbide , cubic zirconia , biopolymer , carbothermic reaction , materials science , carbide , thermal stability , pyrolysis , carbon fibers , thermal decomposition , exothermic reaction , chemical engineering , nuclear chemistry , monoclinic crystal system , decomposition , yield (engineering) , chemistry , polymer , metallurgy , organic chemistry , composite material , ceramic , crystal structure , composite number , engineering
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.