Improvement in the Thermal Shock Resistance of Zirconia Ceramic by the Addition of Aluminium Titanate
ZrO2-Al2TiO5 composite materials with high bending strength and good thermal shock resistance expansion were prepared using partially stabilized zirconia (Y-PSZ) powders coated with Al2TiO5 by co-precipitation method. The effects of Al2TiO5 content on the sintering properties, phase composition, microstructure and thermal shock resistance of the zirconia ceramic were investigated.The results show that the apparent porosity of the samples decreased and their bending strength increased with the content of aluminum titanate increasing from 0 to 8 wt%. The samples with 5 and 8 wt% aluminum titanate addtion have excellent thermal shock resistance. The results showed that the addtion of aluminum titanate could enhance the mechanical strength and improve the thermal shock resistance of zirconia ceramic. The XRD and SEM analysis results indicated that the propriety improvement is relative with the change of the microstructure and the increase of tetragonal ZrO2 phase in the composites.