Materials Science Forum, Vol.471-472, 321-325, 2004
Effect of TiN addition on microstructure and mechanical properties of zirconia matrix ceramic tool material
In this paper, 3mol% yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystal (3Y-TZP) and TiN/3Y-TZP(adding TiN particles to 3Y-TZP) composites were fabricated by hot-pressing technique. Phase composition, microstructure and mechanical properties of the composites were investigated. it is shown that the flexural strength, fracture toughness and Vickers hardness of TiN/3Y-TZP was significantly improved by the addition of TiN particles compared with 3Y-TZP. The flexural strength of ZYT2 (20wt% TiN addition) is 1318 MPa. The fracture toughness of ZYT4 (40wt% TiN addition) is 16.8MPa(.)m(1/2). The toughening and strengthening mechanisms were analyzed. The XRD results show that the additing of TiN can hinder the transformation from tetragonal phase to monoclinic phase of 3Y-TZP during fabrication process.