title: Combined SANS and SAXS study of the action of ultrasound on the structure of amorphous zirconia gels.
abstract: In the present work, we have studied for the first time the combined effect of both sonication and precipitation pH on the structure of amorphous zirconia gels synthesized from zirconium(IV) propoxide. The techniques of small-angle neutron and X-ray scattering (SANS and SAXS) and low temperature nitrogen adsorption provided the integral data on the changes in the microstructure and mesostructure of these materials caused by ultrasonic (US) treatment. Amorphous ZrO2·xH2O synthesized under ultrasonic treatment was found to possess a very structured surface, characterized by the surface fractal dimension 2.9-3.0, compared to 2.3-2.5 for the non US-assisted synthesis, and it was also found to possess a higher specific surface area, while the sizes of the primary particles remain unchanged.
authors.affiliation: Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Gatchina, Russia.
authors.forename: N N
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Gubanova
authors.affiliation: Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. Electronic address: a.baranchikov@yandex.ru.
authors.forename: A Ye
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Baranchikov
authors.affiliation: Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Gatchina, Russia.
authors.forename: G P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Kopitsa
authors.affiliation: Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics, Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Almásy
authors.affiliation: Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Angelov
authors.affiliation: Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Yapryntsev
authors.affiliation: Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics, Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rosta
authors.affiliation: Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia; National Research Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russia.
authors.forename: V K
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Ivanov
keywords: Fractals; Mesostructure; Small-angle X-ray scattering; Small-angle neutron scattering; Ultrasonication; Zirconia