Pure zirconium oxide (ZrO2) nanoparticles with diameters 10-25 nm were synthesized from ZrOCl2.8H2O and Zr(SO4)2.H2O with benzyl alcohol as non-aqueous solvent medium using sol-gel method. Sodium lauryl sulfate was added as surfactants to control the particle size. The synthesized ZrO2 nanoparticles have a mixture of tetragonal and monoclinic structure. The XRD showed the purity of obtained ZrO2 nanoparticles with tetragonal and monoclinic phase and the crystallite size for ZrOCl2.8H2O precursor was estimated to be 18.1 nm and that from Zr(SO4)2.H2O was 9.7 nm. The transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopic studies also shows different sizes of nanoparticles and different morphology depending on the precursor used for the synthesis of ZrO2 nanoparticles

Kinetic studies for the non-isothermal decomposition of un-irradiated and γ-irradiated indium acetyl acetonate In(acac)3 with 10² kGy total γ-ray dose were carried out in static air. The results showed that the decomposition proceeds in one major step in the temperature range of 150-250 °C with the formation of In2O3 as solid residue. The non-isothermal data for un-irradiated and γ-irradiated In(acac)3 were analysed using linear Flynn-Wall-Ozawa (FWO) and nonlinear Vyazovkin (VYZ) iso-conversional methods. The results of application of these free models on the investigated data showed a systematic dependence of Ea on α indicating a simple decomposition process. No significant changes were observed in both decomposition behaviour and (Eα-α) dependency between unirradiated and γ-irradiated In(acac)3. Calcination of In(acac)3 at 400 °C for 5 hours led to the formation of In2O3 monodispersed nanoparticles. X-ray diffraction, FTIR and SEM techniques were employed for characterization of the synthesised nanoparticles. This is the first attempt to prepare In2O3 nanoparticles by solid state thermal decomposition of In(acac)3.