SYNTHESIS OF NANOSTRUCTURED MULLITE AND MULLITE-ZIRCONIA CERAMIC COMPOSITE POWDERS BY USING A MODIFIED AND COST EFFECTIVE SOL-GEL METHOD

摘要

In the present investigation, nanostructured mullite and mullite-zirconia ceramic composite powders has been synthesized by using an aqueous sol-gel method. Here water soluble metal formats, instead of metal alkoxides which are commonly used as precursors in all alkoxide sol-gel route, were used as precursors and water was used as reaction medium. The gels prepared using these materials were calcined at different temperatures. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) was used to measure the average particle size of the calcined powders. It was observed that the average particle size of the powders are in nano-meter scale with a narrow size distribution. This processing route provides the basis for a low cost, low temperature method for the preparation of homogeneous nano-structured mullite and mullite-zirconia composite powders compared with other conventional methods.