Preparation of SiO2-ZrO2 Aerogels and the Adsorption Performance for Cerium

The SiO2-ZrO2 aerogels with different contents of ZrO2 (5wt% and lOwt%) were prepared by a separation method. The morphology, phase structure and coordination status were characterized by SEM, XRD and FT-IR. Results show that the SiO2-ZrO2 composite aerogels are amorphous and have continuous porous network structures. The components are homogeneous on the atomic scale and a large amount of Si-O-Zr bonds exist. SiO2-ZrO2 composite aerogels have excellent adsorption performance to cerium. The maximum adsorption capacity is 211.56 mg/g at 216 h.