Effects of Oxidizing Media on the Composition, Morphology and Optical Properties of Colloidal Zirconium Oxide Nanoparticles Synthesized via Pulsed Laser Ablation in Liquid Technique

In this work, pulsed laser ablation in liquid (PLAL) technique was applied to synthesize colloidal nanoparticles of zirconium oxide (ZrO2) in three different aqueous media (de-ionized water, ethanol and acetone). The structure, morphology, composition and optical properties of the synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS, UV-Vis spectrophotometer and FT-IR analysis respectively. The structural analysis by XRD reveals the formation of mixture of monoclinic and tetragonal phases of nanocrystalline zirconia. The average crystallite sizes of ZrO2 by using Scherrer's formula were estimated to be 41.8, 42.6 and 40.3 nm in water, ethanol and acetone respectively for monoclinic phase while 20.1, 24.8 and 18.9 nm were for tetragonal phase of ZrO2 in water, ethanol and acetone respectively. Microstructure of our starting materials was confirmed from SEM analysis and morphology of the synthesized nanostructured ZrO2 was studied by TEM. TEM images show that the average pa