Abstract: By using nonionic polyethylene oxide surface(PEO) as a template, mesoporous zirconia was synthesized in super critical ethanol under different conditions(wide pH, various types of PEOand different chelates).XRD, N₂adsorption desorption isotherm, TEMand selected area electron diffraction confirmed that the as synthesized powder was mesoporous zirconia with tetragonal walls.Similar to MSUsilica, mesoporous zirconia showed single XRDin small angle, spongy like pore arrangement and non monotonic relation between the pore size and the surfactant length.Thus, the analogous assembly mechanism most likely took place for PEOas the template by forming micelles in thermal ethanol.BETsurface area and pore size could be modified by varying PEO, pHand chelate.The as synthesized mesoporous zirconia had poor thermal stability.It might be because the calcination caused further crystallization and the deformation of crystalline framework, thus losing the meaoporous structure.It is well known that some oxides such as SiO₂, Al₂O₃or TiO₂can effectively stabilize totragonal zirconia.Therefore, incorporation with SiO₂, Al₂O₃or TiO₂, the meso structure of zirconia successfully retained on the calcination at673 K, or even up to723 Kin some cases.The related work will be published later

Key words: Polyethylene oxide surfactant, Super-critical ethanol, Mesoporous zirconia, Crystalline framework