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Effect of Conventional and Rapid Sintering on the Mechanical and Hydrothermal Aging Properties of 5Y-TZP Dental Zirconia
Yena Jang, Jae Chul Bang
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Soonchunhyang University, 646 Eupnaeri, Asan, Chungnam 31538, Republic of Korea
received November 27, 2025, received in revised form February 4, 2026, accepted February 10, 2026
Pages 1-10 DOI: 10.4416/JCST2025-00016
Abstract
This study investigated the effects of sintering methods on the mechanical properties and hydrothermal aging resistance of 5 mol% yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystals (5Y-TZP), a material widely used for dental restorations due to its aesthetic translucency. Specimens were fabricated using both conventional sintering (CS) and rapid sintering (RS) at two temperatures (1 450 °C and 1 600 °C), and their flexural strength, fracture toughness, and Vickers hardness were compared. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and SEM analyses confirmed that all sintered specimens exhibited dense microstructures with no monoclinic phase detected even after low-temperature degradation (LTD) testing for up to 20 h. CS specimens consistently demonstrated superior mechanical properties, particularly in fracture toughness and flexural strength, and exhibited higher reliability based on Weibull analysis. While RS offered shorter processing times, it showed slightly inferior mechanical properties. The results indicate that, although both sintering methods produced LTD-resistant 5Y-TZP, optimizing the RS parameters is necessary to bridge the performance gap with CS, especially for long-span prosthetic applications.
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Keywords
Yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystals, rapid sintering, conventional sintering, low-temperature degradation, flexural strength, Weibull analysis
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