Fabrication and Characterizations of Red Ce-doped 8YSZ Transparent Ceramics by Two-step Sintering

Color zirconia ceramics are widely used in electronics and decoration fields due to their bright colors, high refractive index, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, and non-toxicity to the human body. Cubic cerium doped 8% yttria mol percent stabilized zirconia (Ce-doped 8YSZ) nano-powder with average particle size of 15.9 nm was synthesized by co-precipitation method. Using the powder calcined at 800 degrees C for 4 h as starting material, red zirconia transparent ceramics with high optical transparency and high redness value were prepared by two-step sintering method. Influences of pre-sintering temperature on microstructure, in-line transmittance and color performance of the red Ce-doped 8YSZ ceramics were studied. As the pre-sintering temperature increases from 1200 degrees C to 1300 degrees C, average grain size of the ceramics increases from 0.3 mu m to 2.2 mu m and the relative density increases from 87.2% to 97.1%. The Ce-doped 8YSZ ceramics pre-sintered at 1275 degrees C for 2 h and hot isostatic pressed (HIP) at 1700 degrees C for 3 h show the best in-line transmittance of 47.6% at 700 nm and the highest redness of 52.0.