- Previous Article
- Next Article
- Table of Contents
Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vol.98, No.4, 1377-1384, 2015
Phase Stability in Nanocrystals: A Predictive Diagram for Yttria-Zirconia
Predicting the polymorphic stability of nanocrystals entails taking into account the thermodynamic effects from solid-vapor interfaces. With recent advances in microcalorimetry, it is finally possible to obtain reliable surface energy data which allow building of predictive diagrams, such as the usual phase diagrams for bulk crystals, for nanocrystals. Yttria doped zirconia (YZ) is currently utilized in a variety of applications; making it one of the most studied oxide systems to date. However, the polymorphism of nanocrystalline YZ (nYZ) is much less understood as compared to its bulk counterpart, and the stability conditions of cubic, tetragonal, monoclinic, and amorphous polymorphs at the nanoscale is so far only empirically defined. In this work, we present a new predictive nanoscale phase diagram for nYZ using unprecedented data on surface energies and bulk enthalpies acquired by microcalorimetry. The phase diagram shows the stable zirconia polymorph as a function of the composition and size. This is a useful tool and an important and novel advancement to relatively untouched bulk phase diagrams, which holds the key for reliable materials' design.