Kinetics of the formation of large anisotropic zirconia particles followed by combined SANS/SEMSANS

This proposal aims to investigate the formation mechanism of anisotropic zirconia micron-sized particles, formed in solution by mixing a surfactant and the zirconia precursor; in order to better understand the role of the surfactant and be able to do rational design. Effect of the type of surfactant, temperature, and reactants quantities will be studied. The combined SANS/SEMSANS setup available in Larmor will allow us probing simultaneously the interactions between surfactant and zirconia species in solution at the nm-scale, and the growth of the particles at the µm-scale.