Synthesis of hollow ZrO2 mesopores microspheres with strong adsorption capability by the yeast bio-template route.

In this work, cage-like ZrO2 and hollow ZrO2 microspheres with high surface area and strong adsorption capability were successfully synthesized by microwave- ethanol-thermal method using yeasts as bio-template. XRD, SEM, EDS and BET were used to characterize the products. The results show that these micropheres have a size of about 2-3 microm and are composed by ZrO2 particles of 30-40 nm. The maximum specific surface area of them can reach to 384.780 m2/g and there are presences of the inhomogeneous mesopores. Moreover, the template can be removed and tetragonal phase ZrO2 can be obtained without using calcinations, which greatly simplifies the experimental procedure. We also studied the adsorption capability of cage-like ZrO2 and hollow ZrO2 microspheres to methyl orange, the highest adsorption percent was up to 99.5%. The adsorption isotherm conforms to Freundlich equation.