Hydrothermal crystallisation of doped zirconia: An in situ X-ray diffraction study

Energy-dispersive (X-ray) diffraction has been used on a third generation synchrotron source to study, in situ, the hydrothermal crystallisation of zirconia from the pre-cursor hydroxide under autoclave conditions. Because the sample and enclosure are highly absorbing, it is necessary to collect data at high energy so that meaningful Avrami-kinetics parameters can be determined over the temperature range of 200–250 °C. A clear lowering of the activation energy for crystallisation is observed when using cerium-doped materials.