Sol-Gel Science and Technology – The Microstructure of our Community

Beginning with this month’s issue of the ISGS Newsletter, we will feature an interesting and striking micrograph (or series of micrographs) chosen from a recent issue of the Journal of Sol-Gel Science and Technology or from unpublished sources such as PhD theses, etc (with full attribution given). If you know of any interesting images that might be suitable, please contact the ISGS Newsletter Editor for inclusion. The micrographs can be optical, SEM, TEM, AFM, etc, and a brief description of the samples should be provided

This month’s images were taken from the work of Shijiao Zhao, Rui Xu, Jingtao Ma, Xuping Lin, Xing Cheng, Xingyu Zhao, Shaochang Hao and Changsheng Deng entitled “Preparation and microstructure characterization of crack-free zirconium nitride microspheres by internal gelation combined with two-step nitridation” (JSST, 95(2), 398-407 (2020)). The internal gelation method was used to produce zirconia gel microspheres, which were then nitrided at 1500-1600 o C under reducing conditions.