Aqueous alkaline suitable gel system and related mechanism for highly transparent La0.4Gd1.6Zr2O7 ceramic preparation

In this work, a fabrication route combined optimized ISOBAM-104/TAC gel-casting (where TAC refers to triammonium citrate) and one-step sintering technology was developed to prepare highly transparent LaxGd2-xZr2O7 (LGZO) ceramics. The gelling behavior in an alkaline environment was investigated, and the corresponding mechanism was systematically proposed for the advanced spontaneous gel system. The starting materials after ball milling were directly shaped into green bodies without any treatment, and high-quality LGZO ceramics were obtained by three-stage debinding and one-step sintering. The in-line transmittance of these ceramics reaches 74% at 1100 nm, which is about 95% of the theoretical value. This work not only establishes an efficient method to fabricate LGZO ceramics in large and complex shapes but also elucidates the gelling mechanism in alkaline, which expands the application of gel-casting technology in transparent ceramics.