Influence of counter-ions on the self-assembly of ZrO2 nanodisks

Hongjun Ji; Xiaoheng Liu; Xin Wang; Xiaxi Yao

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2010.09.052

Influence of counter-ions on the self-assembly of ZrO2 nanodisks

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2011 Jan 15;353(2):356-62. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2010.09.052. Epub 2010 Oct 16.

Authors

Hongjun Ji¹, Xiaoheng Liu, Xin Wang, Xiaxi Yao

Affiliation

¹ Key Laboratory for Soft Chemistry and Functional Materials of Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China.

PMID: 20951993
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2010.09.052

Abstract

In three strong inorganic acidic conditions (HNO(3), HCl and H(2)SO(4)), we have prepared a series of air-water interfacial zirconium dioxide (ZrO(2)) films at normal temperature via a self-assembly technique, by using dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid (DBSA) as template and Zr(OC(4)H(9))(4) as precursor. X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), UV-vis and fluorescence spectra have been used to characterize the ZrO(2) films. Results show that a number of worm-like mesoporous nanodisks and ambiguously mesoporous nanodisks are observed in the ZrO(2) films with NO(3)(-) and SO(4)(2-) counter-ions, respectively. Remarkably, a great many perfect target-like multiring nanodisks are obtained in the ZrO(2) sample with Cl(-) counter-ion. The self-assembly mechanism for ZrO(2) nanodisks has been purposely discussed. A model based on the structural changes with respect to the influence of counter-ions on the self-assembly of ZrO(2) nanodisks is therefore proposed. In addition, the structural changes for the ZrO(2) films self-assembled at a higher temperature have been discussed in combination with the influence of counter-ions.