Preparation and characterization of zirconium titanate fibers with good high temperature performance

Zirconium titanate (ZT) precursor fibers were prepared via sol–gel technique by dry-spinning method using polyacetylacetonatozirconium (PAZ) and tetrabutyl titanate (TBOT) as starting materials. PAZ and TBOT were added into methanol with vigorous stirring at room temperature for 2 h and mixed together homogenously. The mixture came into being a new and complicated polymerization system, and PAZ and TBOT were connected through –O– bridge forming the –O–Zr–O–Ti–O– linear chains. The evolutions from the precursor fibers to polycrystalline oxide fibers were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT–IR) and thermal gravimetry/differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA). The surface of the ZT fibers was smooth, dense in cross-section without cracks by scanning electronic spectroscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS). The size of the nanocrystals was less than 50 nm and arranged compactly by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The fibriform was still kept and the size of the grains was up to 400–500 nm due to the grain growth with increasing temperature and the ZT fibers were with good high temperature performance.