Fabrication of Zirconia Fibers by a Sol-Gel Combined Rotational Centrifugal Spinning Technique

A spinnable zirconium solution was obtained by heating the aqueous solution that contains ZrOCl2.8H2O, Y(NO3)3.6H2O, H2O2 and CH3COOH under a reduced pressure in a rotary evaporator. The preparation of the sol, possible structure of PZA, idealized formation process of PZA, firing schedule of the gel fiber, phase transformation of ZrO2 and characterization of the fibers were discussed in this article. The green fibers and those sintered at different temperatures were characterized by thermogravimetry-differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) techniques. After calcined at 1200oC, zirconia fibers with cubic phase were obtained by the addition of 6 mol% Y2O3. The diameters of the zirconium oxide fiber were 5-7 µm, and the grain size was about 20-30 nm. The activation energy for grain growth of zirconia fiber was estimated to be 24.18 kJ.mol–1.