SPRAY-DRYING OF HYDRATED ZIRCONIA SLURRIES - A LABORATORY STUDY

In an attempt to prepare spray-dried zirconia powder under optimised conditions, a slurry of hydrous zirconia, prepared from zirconyl chloride octahydrate, was used as the starting material. The effects of five operational parameters in a spray-drying process on the powder characteristics were studied. The spray-dried products were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. X-ray diffractometry, BET surface area measurements and Particle size analysis. A correlation between the average particle size of the spray-dried powders and the droplet size of the slurry after spraying was established.