Fabrication and Characterization of Hollow Zirconia Microspheres Using Calcium Carbonate as Template

Abstract Stabilized spherical hollow zirconia was fabricated using calcium carbonate as template through a simple precipitation method. The as-prepared products were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms (BET). Adsorption performance of the as-prepared products toward Congo red (CR) aqueous solutions was tested and discussed. Results show that the prepared hollow ZrO 2 microspheres after calcination displayed tetragonal crystalline reflection peaks and copied the morphology of CaCO 3 template very well with a diameter of ∼ 1 μm, and the amount of zirconium n-Butoxide and reaction time play important roles in the formation of special morphology and structure. A possible formation mechanism was proposed according to the observed results. The as-prepared hollow ZrO 2 microspheres after calcination exhibit much better adsorption performance for CR aqueous solutions compared with hollow ZrO 2 microspheres before calcination and ZrO 2 nanoparticles fabricated without template through the same method due to their crystalline structure and large specific surface area.