High pressure sintered ZrO2-6%wt REO

Abstract

The sintering conditions employed in this work are innovative, due to the use of an alternative technology to process ZrO2-REO (rare earth oxide mixture), so called high temperature - high pressure (HPHT). A pressure of 5GPa was used, temperatures of 1100, 1200, and 1300 o C, for times of 2 and 5 minutes. The best results were obtained for samples sintered at 5GPa/1300 o C/5min., where a micro-hardness of 4.8GPa, fracture toughness of 5.3MPa.m ½, density of 97.9%, and 88% in volume of a tetragonal phase retained at room temperature were achieved.

Keywords

• ZrO2
• rare earth oxides
• sintering
• high pressures
• tetragonal phase