Low-temperature sintering of 3Y-TZP/glass composites as all-ceramic dental materials

3Y-TZP ceramics were fabricated with the addition of 10wt% MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 glass additive by cold-isostatic pressing and afterwards liquid-phase sintering at 1200-1400 degrees C for 2 h. The densities of samples sintered at 1300 degrees C for 2 h reaches 99.1%, but further increase of sintering temperature results in the decrease of densities. XRD analysis showed that the cordierite crystals and a small amount of amorphous phase were presented at the grain junctions, and SEM observation indicated that the mean grain size of ZrO2 with round-shape ranged from 200 to 300 nm, which was below the critical transformation size, and the increase in sintering temperature was accompanied with an increase in the mean grain size. The strength and toughness of samples were kept in the range of 396-528 MPa, 4.4-5.8 MPa(.)m(1/2) respectively. which could meet the need of clinical applications of all-ceramic dental materials.