Amorphous zirconium hydroxide is a promising material to sorb and decompose environmentally toxic chemicals due to its high concentration of Lewis-acid and -base sites, including under-coordinated Zr defects and surface hydroxyl species. Commercially available powders are typically prepared by the sol-gel method, in which Zr salts are hydrolyzed in an acid or base solution. However, the resulting powdery product has low adhesion and a large particle size distribution, which makes it unsuitable for thin, uniform, coatings on solid-state platforms. Electrochemically synthesized material, by contrast, can form conformal films on arbitrarily shaped electrodes, with nanometer-scale control of thickness, porosity, and morphology. While electrochemically synthesized zirconium hydroxide is an intermediate product in the production of ZrO<sub>2</sub> films, its physicochemical properties are poorly understood, despite their clear application for toxic chemical decontamination.<br/>Here, we electrochemically synthesize zirconium hydroxide films and characterize them with X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Electrochemically synthesized zirconium hydroxide forms intact, monolithic films of &lt;100 nm thickness on various conducting substrates, such as nanoparticle-decorated or nano-patterned surfaces, with controllable geometric parameters and chemical composition. Otherwise, it has virtually identical material properties to commercial powder. We assess the film’s detoxification activity against a chemical warfare simulant, dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP), using attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Ultra-thin zirconium hydroxide films: Characterization of material properties and assessment of chemical activity for chemical warfare simulant decomposition

256th National Meeting (2018)

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