Kinetic Study of the Thermal Dehydration of SiO2 and SiO2-ZrO2 composites prepared by Sol-Gel route

SiO2, ZrO2 and SiO2-ZrO2 composites at different percentages of zirconia were synthesized by the sol-gel method and thermally characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) to investigate the kinetics of the dehydration process. The synthesized samples were subjected to TGA and the obtained data were treated by the Kissinger method to calculate the apparent activation energy (Ea) of dehydration. The obtained kinetic parameters were discussed and compared each other and with those obtained for the pristine silica.