Mechanical behavior of yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystalline ceramic after different zirconia surface treatments

This study investigated the effects of different zirconia surface conditioning methods on the biaxial flexure strength, surface characteristics and fractographic analysis of a Y-TZP ceramic. Disc-shaped specimens were manufactured according to ISO 6872-2008 for biaxial flexure strength testing, and then randomly assigned into seven groups (n=30). Control (CTRL): without treatment; Tribochemical silica coating (TBS): specimens were sandblasted with silica-coated aluminum oxide particles (CoJet-Sand) for 10s; Silica nanofilm (SNF): specimens were silica coated with a 5nm SiO2 nanofilm; and four protocols of low-fusing porcelain glaze (GLZ): etching with 10% hydrofluoric acid gel (HF) for 1min (GLZ1), 5min (GLZ5), 10min (GLZ10) and 15min (GLZ15). Phase transformation, roughness, micro-morphological, flexural analysis tests, and fractographic analyses were performed. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that the TBS promoted the highest m-phase content (20.35). However, for the GLZ groups, XRD analysis was not sensitive enough to obtain an accurate reading for phase transformation. The GLZ group had the highest roughness values. The TBS group had the highest characteristic strength (1291.38MPa), followed by SNF (999.26MPa). These results suggest that (TBS) and (SNF) treatments did not reduce the mechanical properties, while (GLZ) led to a degradation in the mechanical properties.