Effect of initial microstructure on the sintering behavior of cubic zirconia nano-particles

The green bodies with two different packing structures (lower and higher density) were prepared from cubic zirconia nanoparticles. The sintering trajectories during densification of normal and two-step sintering (TSS) were studied to obtain nanocrystalline cubic zirconia. In normal sintering process, both compacts exhibited the typical sintering trajectory reported in the literatures. However, in TSS, the two compacts followed different trajectories, and only the higher green density sample densified with the suppression of grain growth in TSS process. The density of the sample heated at the first firing temperature of 1100 degrees C and subsequently heated at 1050 degrees C for 10 h reached 98% with the grain size of 117 nm. The two-step sintering of the initial compact with higher density is supposed to be a better way to obtain dense material retained nanometric microstructure. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.