A new chemical strategy: Mineralizer-free synthesis of iron zircon ultrafine particles by an epoxide assisted sol–gel route

Abstract Ultrafine iron zircon particles were prepared by a sol–gel route using propylene oxide as a gelation agent. The unique chemistry of this method produces highly homogeneous gel intermediate, resulting in the substantial lowering of heat treatment temperature to 1000 °C without using of mineralizer. This calcination temperature is lower than that in solid-state chemistry and other sol–gel routes, leading to the minimizing of the particles aggregation and growth. The non-mineralizer synthesis process guarantees the preparation of pure phase and high quality iron zircon with ultrafine particle size. This epoxide assisted sol–gel route shows great potential as a general procedure for the large scale production of ultrafine particles of zircon based pigments.