Characteristic and Sinterability of Alumina-Zirconia-Yttria Nanoparticles Prepared by Different Chemical Methods

The characteristics and sinterability of the Al2O3-ZrO2(Y2O3) nanoparticles produced by simple and effective microwave and molten salts methods and processed by using spark plasma sintering were studied and compared. The crystalline powders with the specific surface area in the range of 72–108 m2/g and crystallite size of 5–13 nm were obtained by calcination of samples prepared by both methods at 800 °C. The content of t-ZrO2 phase depends on concentration of Al2O3, Y2O3 and on calcination temperature but the impact of the preparation method is insignificant. The phase transition of tetragonal ZrO2 to monoclinic for the samples without Y2O3 started at 1000 °C though it was incomplete in the case of high content of Al2O3. The bulk materials with relative density of 86.1–98.7% were fabricated by the spark plasma sintering method at 1500–1600 °C depending on the content of Al2O3 and Y2O3.