Fabrication and microstructure evolution of 8 mol% yttria-stabilized zirconia (8YSZ) transparent ceramics from co-precipitated nanopowders

8YSZ precursor was synthesized by the co-precipitation method using ammonia as the precipitant. The influences of calcination temperature on the phase, morphology and dispersity of 8YSZ nanopowders were investigated. It was found that the 8YSZ nanopowders calcined at 800 °C had the best sinterability with the mean particle size of 14.5 nm. 8YSZ ceramics were then fabricated by air pre-sintering at 1250–1325 °C followed by HIP post-treatment at 1550 °C. The influences of pre-sintering temperature on the microstructure and optical transparency of 8YSZ ceramics were studied. It was found that the 8YSZ ceramics pre-sintered at 1300 °C had a suitable microstructure. The HIP post-treatment temperature was successfully reduced by 200 °C for the 8YSZ transparent ceramics from co-precipitated powders compare with our previous works. In-line transmittance of the 8YSZ ceramics (1.0 mm in thickness) reached 65.7% at 800 nm and the average grain size was 25 μm.