Enhanced flexural strength of pre-densified ZrO2 ceramics by a facile method of flash treatment

Traditional methods for strengthening ceramics rely on reasonable strategies implemented in material preparation and/or sintering process, but few of them can improve the strength of a pre-densified ceramic. In this paper, a facile method of flash treatment was proposed to strengthen the pre-densified zirconia ceramics. After flash treatment, the flexural strength of 3Y-TZP ceramics was improved to 859 MPa, which was 13 % higher than that of the original 3Y-TZP ceramics (759 MPa). The flash treatment could increase the intergranular fracture proportion of ceramics and affect the fracture behavior. Meanwhile, we proposed that the comprehensive effects of flash treatment would strengthen grains by introducing residual compressive stresses and dislocations, and relatively weaken grain boundaries by introducing tensile stresses and defects (vacancies and pores).