Preparation and Characterization of 3Y-ZrO2 Composite Ceramics

Dense 3Y-ZrO2composite ceramics were prepared by using 3Y-ZrO2nanopowders as the raw materials, via the process of ball milling, granulating, molding and calcination.We investigated the microstructure, surface morphologies, the mechanical property, the density and linear shrinkage rate of the sintered ceramics and the effect of the ball milling technics and the sintering technics on the above properties of the3Y-ZrO2composite ceramics via SEM and testing. The results show that the most excellent technics in all was explored as follows: the ultrafine ball milling by adding zirconium balls of 2 mm at the speed of 35 r/min for 10 h, with the mass ratio of zirconium ball, water and mixed powders of 6:1:1, the granulaing with 1.5% PVA, the CIP, the pre-sintering to remove the organic substrate to 500°C and the microwave sintering from 20°C to 1450 °Cin 80 min in which the duration at 1450°C was 20 min and the natural cooling time of the samples was 90 min. And the 3Y-ZrO2composite ceramics obtained by this process have a relative density of 99.2%, bending strength of 1098 MPa, and a fracture toughness of 7.8 MPa·m1/2.