Sintering densification, microstructure and transformation behavior of Al2O3/ZrO2(Y2O3) composites

The effects of the contents of ZrO2(3Y) and ZrO2(2Y) on the sintering densification, microstructure and transformation behavior of the composites Al2O3/ZrO2(Y2O3) were analyzed, which was prepared by vacuum sintering. It was found that volume fraction of ZrO2(Y2O3) affected the transformation amount of t -> m-ZrO2. The results also show that when the contents of ZrO2(3Y) and ZrO2(2Y) were 15 and 20 vol.%, respectively, the relative densities of the Al2O3/ZrO2(Y2O3) composites were 99.6% and 99.1 %, and the average grain sizes of ZrO2(Y2O3) were 1.3 and 1.5 mu m, respectively. In addition, the transformation quantities of the samples before and after fracture were V-t -> m = 44 vol.% and V-t -> m = 18 vol.%. (c) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.