Synthesis of ZrB2 nanofibers by carbothermal reduction via electrospinning

Abstract Near-stoichiometric ZrB 2 nanofibers are synthesized via carbothermal reduction using electrospinning technique. Polyzirconoxane (PZO), boric acid and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) are used as zirconia, boron and carbon sources, respectively. ZrB 2 is obtained by pyrolyzing the as-spun green fibers at 1500 °C for an hour in argon or vacuum. The obtained ZrB 2 nanofibers are composed of uniformly nano-sized single crystals. The products are rather pure, containing only zirconium, boron and a small amount of oxygen. The atomic percentages of zirconium and boron in the nanofibers formed in vacuum at 1500 °C are 33.4% and 62.8% respectively, which is very close to the stoichiometric ratio of ZrB 2 . The nanofibers are characterized by XRD, SEM, EDS, TEM and TG–DTA.