Hydrothermal synthesis of pure nanostructured ZrO2, Y2O3 doped ZrO2 and Gd2O3 doped ZrO2 ceramic biomaterials and certain characterization methods

Abstract

This thesis aims to successfully synthesize nanostructured powders of simple / purezirconia and rare-earth-doped zirconia, with a Rare Earth Oxide (REO) based contentof 5 wt% molar (REO = Y2O3 and Gd2O3). The role of rare earth elements as dopantsis to stabilize the zirconia, preferably in the tetragonal form.The proposed method is hydrothermal synthesis, due to its efficiency regarding time,energy consumption, costs of materials, eco-friendliness, but most of all due to theconsiderable amount of ceramic nanopowders obtained, compared to other obtainingmethods like sol-gel, co-precipitation, calcination or atmospheric plasma spraying.The samples are characterized using various techniques, such as X-ray diffraction forthe crystal structure, Scanning Electron Microscopy and EDX for morphology, andFourier-Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) for surface chemistry. Eachtechnique is described in the chapter dedicated to Materials and Methods.The obtained results are comparable to the existing data from the litera