Journal of Advanced Materials in Engineering (Esteghlal)

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The effects of mechanochemical treatment of monoclinic zirconia in high energy planetary ball mill on its phase transformation were investigated. The mechanical treatment in ball mill reduces the grain size, increases microstrain, and causes phase transition to metastable nanostructured tetragonal and cubic phases. XRD and TEM results show considerable amounts of amorphous phase during ball milling. Surface area measurements by BET method over long milling times reveal that ZrO2 particles are agglomerated with an amorphous phase as a binder. The mechanical treatment increases the reactivity of zirconia in chlorine gas. Annealing of ball milled zirconia in the chlorine atmosphere produces oxygen vacancy in zirconia (ZrO2-x) and causes the amorphous phase to be crystallized and to change into cubic and tetragonal phases. The chlorine atmosphere increases the stability temperatures of cubic and tetragonal phases to 800°C and 1000°C, respectively. In this situation, the energy of grain boundary and oxygen vacancy play important roles in the stability of tetragonal and cubic phases.

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The addition of ZrO2 particles to the HA coating has received considerable attention because ZrO2 particles increase the bonding strength between HA coating and substrate. In this study, nanostructured hydroxyapatite (HA)/yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) coatings were prepared by a sol–gel method. It was found that at 950ºC, the dominant phases were HA and tetragonal (t)-zirconia in 3YSZ, cubic (c)-zirconia in 8 YSZ and t-c-Zirconia in 5YSZ phases with the small amounts of β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) and CaZrO3. The crystallite size of the coating was about ~20-30 nm for tetragonal and cubic zirconia grain size and 40-80 nm for hydroxyapatite grain size. Crack-free and homogeneous HA/YSZ composite coatings were obtained with no observable defects. In vitro evaluation in 0.9% NaCl showed that Ca2+ dissolution rate of composite coatings was lower than that of pure HA coatings. The decrease in electrochemical performance of these coated samples in comparison with the uncoated type 316L St.St could be associated with chloride ion and water penetration into the coating, transport of ions through the coating, and the subsequent electrochemical reactions at the coating–metal interface.

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In this study, mullite– irconia composite samples were prepared by reaction sintering of alumina and zircon powder via gel casting process. Gel casting is a new ceramic forming technique. This process is based on the casting of slurry, containing ceramic powder, dispersant and premix monomer solution. To achieve stabilized, high solid loading (80 wt%) and castable slurry, the rheological properties of slurry were optimized. The monomers polymerized the slurry to form gelled specimens. After gelation, the specimens were unmolded, then dried out under controlled condition. Burning out and sintering of the specimens was carried out in the range of 1400-1700°C. Apparent porosity and bulk density of the sintered samples were measured by soaking in water. Crystalline phase evolution and microstructure were determined by XRD and SEM techniques. Results showed that the reaction sintering and mullite formation was completed at 1700°C due to very slow diffusion of Al3+ ions within amorphous silica formed at the decomposition of zircon. The sintered samples at this temperature also showed the lowest apparent porosity (≈ 4%) and the highest bulk density (≈3.40 gr/cm-3).

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Application of ceramic reinforcements is one of the effective and well-known ways to refine the microstructure of brittle metals such as magnesium. In this research, the influence of nano/micro particles of zirconia on the microstructure of cast AZ91 alloy was studied. At the first stage, nano and micro ZrO2 powders were blended through mechanical alloying procedure. In five specimens, the total amount of nano and micro reinforcements in the final mixture was fixed at 5 wt%, whereas their ratio was varied. Two other composites were also produced using 5wt% of nano or micro particles of zirconia. These powder mixtures were then stirred in the molten AZ91 at 650C by vortex method and finally cast in a sand mold at 615C. For comparison, two monolithic castings including a conventionally cast specimen and a super heat-treated sample were also cast. The average grain sizes for all composites were decreased with respect to both monolithic castings. The best results in terms of grain size and microstructure improvement were obtained for AZ91/5wt% nano ZrO2 composite with remarkable improvement in comparison with monolithic castings.

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A powder mixtures of 18.72% wt, 17.67% wt Al2O3 and 63.6% wt zircon were prepared and milled in a planetary ball milled for one up to 10 hours in presence of air. After removal Iron impurity from as-milled samples, they were isothermally heated in temperature range of 1300-1450 0C for one hour in an air atmosphere. After cooling the samples, they were studied using XRD analyses. The XRD and PSA analyses were showed that the size of particles in the mixtures decreased with increasing of milling time and the mixtures became amorphous nature. The isothermal runs observed that pre-milling on the mixtures has great effect, wherever the zircon decomposition temperature and mullite formation temperature decreased to about 1300 0C in a one-hour-milled sample. The amount of tetragonal zirconia increased with increasing in milling time at 1300 0C, however the amount of tetragonal zirconia decreased with increasing of temperature up to 1450 0C. The amount of tetragonal zirconia at 1300 0C in the three hours milled samples was the highest value among all samples.

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In this study, the effect of different amounts of Y2O3 on the properties of mullite-zirconia composites was investigated. For this purpose, these composites were fabricated by reaction-sintering of alumina and zircon as raw materials. Besides, the slip casting method was used for forming these composites, and sintering process was carried out at 1600 °C. Then, the physical and mechanical properties, phase composition and the microstructure of these composites were investigated. The results showed that yittria addition up to 0.5 wt.% has no effect on the properties of these composites. Besides, addition of more than 0.5 wt.% yittria formed solid solution with zirconia grains and led to stabilization of tetragonal zirconia phase and increasing of its amount. Hence, yittria addition increases the hardness and bending strength of composite by stabilizing tetragonal zirconia phase and then, decreasing the micro-crack formation during zirconia phase transformation. As results show, addition of 0.75 wt.% yittria leads to a considerable increase in the bending strength.

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In this study, the effect of different amounts of Y2O3 on the properties of mullite-zirconia composites was investigated. For this purpose, these composites were fabricated by reaction-sintering of alumina and zircon as raw materials. Besides, the slip casting method was used for forming these composites, and sintering process was carried out at 1600 °C. Then, the physical and mechanical properties, phase composition and the microstructure of these composites were investigated. The results showed that yittria addition up to 0.5 wt.% has no effect on the properties of these composites. Besides, addition of more than 0.5 wt.% yittria formed solid solution with zirconia grains and led to stabilization of tetragonal zirconia phase and increasing of its amount. Hence, yittria addition increases the hardness and bending strength of composite by stabilizing tetragonal zirconia phase and then, decreasing the micro-crack formation during zirconia phase transformation. As results show, addition of 0.75 wt.% yittria leads to a considerable increase in the bending strength

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