Abstract
Monolithic gels in the ZrO2-SiO2 system containing up to 30 mol% ZrO2 were prepared from the mixed solutions of Zr(O.nC3H7)4 and partially prehydrolyzed Si(OC2H5)4 (Tetraethyl orthosilicate) by the sol-gel method. The effect of parameters such as the hydrolysis temperature, the amount of water and HCl on the hydrolysis condensation process was investigated and the obtained gels were studied by the IR spectra and TG-DTA. The results showed that the gelation time becomes shorter with increasing content of HCl, H2O and gelation temperature, and that the polymerization was more easily completed with the higher water volume causing the elimination of unreacted organic groups.