Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vol.93, No.12, 4001-4004, 2010
Effectively Inhibiting Abnormal Grain Growth of Alumina in ZTA with Low-Content Fine-Sized ZrO2 Inclusions Introduced by Infiltration and In Situ Precipitation
Previous literatures have all emphasized that the successful control of microstructure homogeneity of ZTA (ZrO2 toughened Al2O3) composites can only be achieved provided that the ZrO2 particles are homogeneously distributed and the volume content exceeds 5 vol%. In this paper, we report our strategy to incorporate fine-sized ZrO2 into Al2O3 by infiltrating presintered alumina compact using zirconium ion-containing solution and then in situ precipitation with ammonia solution. Homogeneous microstructure without AGG can be achieved in the prepared composite at a lower ZrO2 content (2.3 vol%). Such a result might be attributed to the excellent homogeneous distribution of fine-sized incorporated ZrO2 particles in Al2O3 matrix.