A comparative study on the structural, optical, electrochemical and photocatalytic properties of ZrO2 nanooxide synthesized by different routes

Nanooxide ZrO2 was synthesized by a simple solution combustion route utilizing urea as a fuel. For the comparative study, it has been additionally synthesized by sol gel route followed by calcination. The calcined ZrO2 nanaooxides were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and UV-Visible spectrophotometry analysis (UV-Vis). Both the photocatalytic activity and the photoluminescence (PL) properties of the synthesized ZrO2 intensifies depending on the crystallinity. The EPR analysis confirms the presence of paramagnetic defects in both the samples. SGR shows enlarged photocatalytic activity with 97% decomposition of Methylene blue dye beneath ultraviolet radiation. This work may expand our understanding on combining effects of defects, tiny crystalline size, narrowing energy band gap and giant surface areas of ZrO2. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.