Nd₂O₃ DOPED YTTRIA STABILIZED ZIRCONIA CERAMICS FABRICATED BY CONVENTIONAL AND MICROWAVE SINTERING METHODS

• Main Authors: A. Muthuchamy, Nidhi Nagaraju, Raja Annamalai A., Agrawal Dinesh K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague 2019-01-01
• Series: Ceramics-Silikáty
• Subjects: Neodymia-doped yttria-stabilized zirconia ceramics (Nd₂O₃-doped 8mol% YSZ); Cubic zirconia; Powder metallurgy; Microwave sintering; Crystal structure; Vickers hardness; microstructure; X-ray diffraction (XRD); Lattice parameter; Grain size
• Online Access: http://www.ceramics-silikaty.cz/index.php?page=cs_detail_doi&id=1246
• ISSN: 0862-5468; 1804-5847

Cubic 8 mol% yttria stabilized zirconia (8YSZ) ceramics doped with 9, 12 and 15wt% Nd₂O₃ were sintered in a single mode 2.45 GHz microwave furnace at sintering temperature of 1400°C for 20 min. and by conventional sintering at 1400°C for 5 h. The microwave sintered samples attained higher densities than the conventional processed ones. The Nd₂O₃ additions have adverse effects on densification of 8YSZ ceramics. The XRD investigations revealed that, cubic phase of 8YSZ remained stable and substitution of Zr4+ ions by larger Nd3+ ions causes an increase in the lattice parameters with Nd₂O₃ additions. Vickers hardness of 8YSZ decreased with addition of Nd₂O₃ irrespective of the sintering technique.