Preparation of Nanocrystalline Mesoporous ThO2 via Surfactant Assisted Sol-gel Procedure

Authors: N. Mohseni, S. Janitabar, S. J. Ahmadi, M. Roshanzamir, M. Thaghizadeh

Abstract:

In this research, thorium dioxide mesoporous nanocrystalline powder was synthesized through the sol-gel method using hydrated thorium nitrate and ammonium hydroxide as starting materials and Triton X100 as surfactant. ThO2 gel was characterized by thermogravimetric (TGA), and prepared ThO2 powder was subjected to scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Brunauer-Emett-Teller (BET) analyses studies. Detailed analyses show that prepared powder consisted of phase with the space group Fm3m of thoria and its crystalline size was 12.6 nm. The thoria possesses 16.7 m2/g surface area and the pore volume and size calculated to be 0.0423 cc/g and 1.947 nm, respectively.

Keywords: Thoria, sol-gel, mesoporous, nanocrystalline.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1108673

References:

[1] R. A. Reibold, J. F. Poco, T. F. Baumann, R. L.Simpson, J. H. Satcher Jr., “Synthesis and characterization of nanocrystalline thoria”, Journal of non-crystalline solids , vol. 341 , pp. 35–39, 2004.
[2] N. Kumar, R.K. Sharma, V.R. Ganatra, S.K. Mukerjee, V.N. Vaidya, D.D. Sood, “Studies of the preparation of thoria and thoria-urania microspheres using an internal gelation process ”, Nuclear fuel Cycles, vol. 96 , pp. 164–177, 1991.
[3] V.N. Vaidya, “Sol-gel process for ceramic nuclear fuels”, BARK newsletter.
[4] V.N. Vaidya, “Status of sol-gel process for nuclear fuels”, J Sol-Gel Sci., vol. 46, pp. 369–381, 2008.
[5] V.G. Balakhonov, V.A. Matyukha, N.P. Saltan, E.A. Fillipov, A.N. Zhiganov, “Technology of getting of microspheric thorium dioxide”, Jurnal of physics, vol. 49 , pp. 897–901, 1999.
[6] S.A.H.Feghhi, Z.Gholamzadeh, L.Sotani, C. Tenreiro,“ Comparison of (Th-233U) O2 and (Th-235U) O2 fuel burn up into a thermal research reactor using MCNPX2.6 code”, International Journal of Radiation Research, vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 29-33, 2013.
[7] E. Zimmer, C. Ganguly, “Reprocessing and refabrication of thoriumbased fuel”, IAEA-TECDOC-412, pp. 89-109, 1987.
[8] M. Kruk, M. Jaroniec, “Gas adsorption characterization of ordered organic−inorganic nanocomposite materials”, Chem. Mater., vol. 13 , pp. 3169–3183, 2001.
[9] A. Monshi, M. R. Foroughi, M. R. Monshi “Modified scherrer equation to estimate more accurately nano-crystallite size using XRD”, World Journal of Nano Science and Engineering, vol 2, pp.154-160, 2012.
[10] V. Uche. Don Okpala, “Sol-gel technique: A veritable tool for crystal growth”, Advances in Applied Science Research, vol. 4, pp.506-510 ,2013
[11] A. L. Greer, “Nanostrucuture Materials – from Fundamentals to Applications”, Mat Sci. Forum, vol. 269-272, pp.3-10, 2013.
[12] A. Inoue, T. Masumoto, “Nanocrystalline alloys produced by crystallization of amorphous alloys”, Current Topics in Amorphous Materials: Physics and Technology, pp.177-184, 1993.
[13] D. G. Morris, “What have we learned about nanoscale materials? The past and future”, Mat Sci. Forum, vol. 268-272, pp.11-14, 1998.
[14] C. Suryanarayana, “Nanocrystalline Materials”, Int. Mat Reviews, vol. 40, No. 2, pp.41-64, 1995.