Design and synthesis of mesoporous ZrO₂ thin films using surfactant Pluronic P123 via sol–gel technique

抄録

Mesoporous ZrO₂ thin films were fabricated via sol–gel technique by introducing a surfactant, Pluronic P123. The mesoporous structure was tailored by altering several key processing variables including calcination temperature and heating rate. The samples prepared were characterized systematically with X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy. The pore size of the mesoporous ZrO₂ synthesized was ca. 8 nm and the corresponding thin film thickness was ca. 60 nm. It was found that at a relatively high heating rate, the mesoporous ZrO₂ produced had partially-ordered mesoporous structure and its wall structure was semi-crystalline. A mechanism was proposed for this structure formation.