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Synthesis, Densification and Characterization of Nanosized Oxide Ceramic Powders with Eutectic Compositions by Heating of Alcohol-Aqueous Salt Solutions

J.-H. Ouyang, Y.-H. Ma, A. Henniche, B. Wang, Z.-G. Wang, Y.-J. Wang

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, 92 Westdazhi Street, Harbin 150001, China

received October 29, 2016, received in revised form December 3, 2016, accepted January 13, 2017

Vol. 8, No. 1, Pages 81-90   DOI: 10.4416/JCST2016-00097

Abstract

Nanosized spherical powders of Al₂O₃-ZrO₂ (Y₂O₃) and Al₂O₃-SmAlO₃ with eutectic compositions have been synthesized with a facile and novel method involving the heating of aqueous salt solutions with an alcohol-water mixture as the solvent. The kind and concentration of aqueous salt solutions have a significant influence on the precipitation and morphologies of the resulting powders. Nanoscale particulates with a narrow size distribution were successfully obtained. The amorphous powders are crystallized to a mixture of t-ZrO₂ phase and α-Al₂O₃ phase at a calcination temperature of 1250 °C. Al₂O₃-ZrO₂ (Y₂O₃) powders exhibit an average particle size of 200 nm after calcination. However, fine Al₂O₃-SmAlO₃ nano-powders with an average size of 40 nm were synthesized after calcination at 1300 °C in which the resulting precipitates are crystallized to a mixture of α-Al₂O₃ and orthorhombic SmAlO₃. These ceramic powders were densified by hot pressing to further evaluate their microstructure and mechanical properties. The as-sintered Al₂O₃-ZrO₂ (Y₂O₃) ceramic consists of 42.8 wt% t-ZrO₂ and 57.2 wt% α-Al₂O₃ with a relative density of 98.5 %, and has a flexural strength of 1363 MPa and fracture toughness of 10.01 MPa·m^1/2, which is mainly attributed to phase transformation toughening of t-ZrO₂ to m-ZrO₂ during fracture. However, the Al₂O₃-SmAlO₃ ceramic has a relative density of 99.2%, but flexural strength of just 529 MPa.

Keywords

Al₂O₃-ZrO₂(Y₂O₃) ceramic, Al₂O₃-SmAlO₃ ceramic, co-precipitation, microstructure morphology, mechanical properties

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