Solid Solutions of WO3into Zirconia in WO3–ZrO2 Catalysts

Catalysts in the WO3–ZrO2 system were produced by coprecipitation of aqueous solutions of zirconium oxynitrate and ammonium metatungstate. Samples were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, thermogravimetry, and refinement of their crystalline structures with the Rietveld method. This coprecipitation gave rise to solid solutions of tungsten oxide into zirconia; the initial phase was amorphous and crystallized into two tetragonal crystalline phases, T1 and T2, when samples were annealed at 560°C. The main difference between both phases was the oxygen position along the c axis. In the phase with higher symmetry, T2, an oxygen atom was at one-half of the unit cell, 0.50(2), producing flat crystallite surfaces perpendicular to the c axis, while in the phase with the lower symmetry, T1, it was at 0.447(2), and gave rise to rough crystallite surfaces parallel to (100) planes. The interpenetrating tetrahedra forming the representative polyhedron of the crystalline structure were almost nondeformed in the phase with higher symmetry, because all Zr–O atom bond lengths were very similar. As the annealing temperature of the sample was increased, the dissolved tungsten atoms in the phase with higher symmetry segregated to the crystalliteʹs surface.