A Study on the Sintering Behavior of Al2O3/Y2O3 Doped ZrO2 Composites

Abstract

Abstract

Zirconia ceramics are widely used as cutting tools due to their very high hardness, excellent fracture toughness, flexural strength, and wear-resistance properties. Tetragonal zirconia exhibits better mechanical properties due to the transformation toughening of zirconia. The superior mechanical properties in zirconia are mainly due to higher density and controlled microstructure. In the present work, an attempt has been made to prepare near full-dense zirconia bodies with controlled microstructure by optimizing different process parameters. In the present study, an attempt has been made to observe the sintering behavior of 3 mol % and 5 mol % Y₂O_3- doped tetragonal ZrO₂ polycrystals (3Y-TZP, 5Y-TZP) and Al₂O₃ doped in 3Y-TZP and to optimize the sintering parameters to get near full-dense bodies with fine-grained microstructure. It is observed that the densities of 3Y-TZP samples are higher than the 5Y-TZP after sintering at 1400 and 1450 ºC. The variation of sintered density of Al₂O₃/3Y-TZP samples with different Al₂O₃ content, sintering temperature and time has been determined.

Keywords: Zirconia ceramics, tetragonal zirconia polycrystals, zirconia toughened alumina, sintering, densification