Study of the effect of sintering temperature on the microstructure and mechanical properties of stabilized and partially stabilized zirconium dioxide

Despite broad utilization of zirconia ceramics in science and industry, significant matters about the structure-property relations in sintered parts are relevant. In this work, to control the microstructure of doped zirconium oxide ceramics with Y, Ca, Mg, Ce dopants sintering at temperatures in the range of 1300 - 1700 °C was carried out. The structure-property relation was studied using XRD, SEM, Vickers and measuring the biaxial flexural strength methods. With an increase in the sintering temperature, significant changes in the microstructure are observed, associated with exaggerated grain growth and the formation of secondary phases. Microhardness vs sintering temperature dependencies show that with increasing temperature, there is an increase in the HV1 values for the ZrO₂CaCO₃, ZrO₂−MgO, ZrO2-CeO₂ compositions, which is associated with an increase in the density of ceramics. Optimum sintering temperatures for ZrO2-Y₂O₃, ZrO₂−MgO compositions were found, for which the flexural strengths have the highest values.