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The Role of Powder Preparation Method in Enhancing Fracture Toughness of Zirconia Ceramics with Low Alumina Amount

I. Danilenko, T. Konstantinova, G. Volkova, V. Burkhovetski, V. Glazunova

Journal of Ceramic Science and Technology, Vol. 6, No. 3 (2015), pp. 191-200

DOI: 10.4416/JCST2015-00020

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Abstract

In most cases zirconia-alumina composites for scientific investigations and industry are prepared by means of mechanical mixing of powders, compaction and sintering. In our opinion, this is one of the reasons for the low values for fracture toughness of the sintered materials. In this study, we investigated the effect of nanopowder synthesis methods on the structure and mechanical properties of 3Y-TZP/alumina ceramic composites and determined the mechanisms involved in composite toughening. We show that the addition of a small amount of alumina (1 – 2 wt%) to zirconia ceramics has the potential to increase the fracture toughness of zirconia ceramics.The starting powders were obtained by means of co-precipitation and ball milling. It turned out that at equal density, bending strength and hardness values, the fracture toughness in ceramic composites sintered from co-precipitated nanopowders is higher in comparison with fracture toughness values in matrix material and traditional 3Y-TZP/alumina composites. We believed that the role of the crack deflection process in ceramic composites sintered from co-precipitated nanopowders increased significantly. This can be conditioned by means of a series of processes for composite structure formation during precipitation, crystallization, and sintering of nanopowders.

Keywords

Keywords: 3Y-TZP, fracture toughness, composite, Al2O3, structure characterization

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