Tetragonal 3YSZ (3 mol% yttria-stabilized zirconia) nanoparticles were synthesized at temperature as low as 200 degrees C through a glycothermal reaction using coprecipitated amorphous hydrous gel of ZrCl4 and YCl3 center dot 6H(2)O as precursors and 1,4-butanediol as solvent. XRD and TEM data support that glycothermal processing method provides a simple low temperature route for producing highly crystallized tetragonal ZrO2 nanoparticles without mineralizers, which could also be extended to other system. Raman analysis also indicated that 3YSZ nanoparticles synthesized in glycothermal condition had tetragonal phase without any trace of monoclinic phase. The as-prepared 3YSZ nanoparticles have spherical morphology with an average crystal size of 7-10 nm and agglomerated into spherical shape with a diameter of about 100-200 nm. The tetragonal phase remained stable with heat treatment when the calcinations of the as-synthesized powder were carried out from 400 to 1400 degrees C. The combination of uniform glycothemally-synthesized tetragonal 3YSZ nano-powder and two-step sintering can suppress grain boundary migration but not affect grain boundary diffusion without long annealing period. Fine-grained microstructure with 100-500 nm was obtained without abnormal growth although the pellet was fully dense and had 98.1% of the theoretical density at 1400 degrees C. The pellets sintered at 1350 and 1400 degrees C exhibit activation energies for conduction in range 0.84 eV, which are close to the values usually found for zirconia-based solid electrolytes. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.