Effect of pH on Production Process and Characteristics of Zirconium Carbide Nano Particles Synthesized by Sol-Gel Method

Zirconium carbide Nano particle was synthesized through sol-gel method. Although sol-gel process is usually used to producing oxide compounds, in this study it was successfully employed to produce a carbide powder. For this purpose, zirconium propoxide and saccharose were initially used as zirconium and carbon sources, respectively. The starting sol was produced in 5 different pH, in order to examine its effects on the properties of the obtained powder. Heat-treatment of the gel, in a range of 700-1400 °C, resulted in the formation of mixed zirconia-carbon powder, and subsequently, zirconium carbide. Then, differential thermal analysis (DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to investigate heat performance of the gel, structure and micro-structures of the synthesized powder, respectively. Results showed that increasing the pH could not only affect the reaction process and efficiency of the zirconium carbide synthesis, but it also decreased the particles size of the powder. Therefore, at pH 4.2, 5.2 and 6.2, the size ranges of 130-190, 90-150 and 50-100 nm were obtained, respectively. It was also noted that changes in pH had no effects on the morphology of the spherical particles.