Unusual Sintering Behavior of Porous Chromatographic Zirconia Produced by Polymerization-Induced Colloid Aggregation

The effects of sintering temperature and duration on the pore structure of chromatographic zirconia particles produced by the controlled polymerization-induced aggregation of 1000 Å colloids are studied with an eye toward optimally strengthening the aggregates and eliminating small pores while preserving large pores. Nitrogen adsorption and mercury porosimetry are used to estimate the surface area, pore volume, and pore size distribution. Pulsed field gradient NMR measurements of solvent diffusion are used to estimate the diffusion tortuosity of the pore space. Initially of course, the pore volume and surface area decrease significantly, the decrease being more pronounced at higher temperatures. With prolonged sintering, the pore size, pore volume, and surface area change much more slowly, but the diffusion tortuosity seems to be minimized at a sintering temperature and time at which pores are allowed to redistribute so as to optimize large pores. The aggregates synthesized by this aggregation method apparently produce metastable large pores which are not easily collapsed.