Improvement of toughness of Y-ZrO2:: Role of dopant distribution

Among all the advanced ceramics, yttria stabilized tetragonal zirconia (Y-TZP) ceramics are known to be one of the toughest single phase oxide materials. Till to date, the research on this class of ceramics is mostly concentrated on understanding the influence of grain size and dopant content on transformation toughening. The present research focusses on the understanding the role of yttria distribution on transformation toughening. To this end, 8 mol% yttria stabilized zirconia powders are mixed with various amounts of Y-free monoclinic zirconia powders to obtain varying yttria content in the sintered ceramics. The microstructure characterization is carried out using XRD, EPMA and SEM. For the first time, the present research has demonstrated that the mechanical property, in particular the indentation toughness of 8Y-TZP can be improved and tailored by addition of varying amount of yttria free monoclinic zirconia particles.