A Convenient Method for Preparing Well-Dispersed Er₂Zr₂O₇ Nanocrystals

Well-dispersed fluorite Er2Zr2O7 nanocrystals have been successfully prepared by a convenient salt-assistant combustion method. The effects of calcinations temperature and salt category on the characteristics of the products were investigated by XRD and TEM. The thermal treatment temperature has an important effect on crystal size and lattice distortion of the nanocrystals. The experiment showed that the introduction of salt in the combustion synthesis process resulted in the formation of well-dispersed Er2Zr2O7 nanocrystals. The average size was 30 nm and was in agreement with the XRD result, which indicated that the nanocrystals were uniform in particle size distribution. Moreover, the possible formation process in the salt-assisted combustion synthesis was also analyzed.