Title
Preparation of mullite / zirconia composite ceramics with ultra fine grains by in-situ controlled crystallizing from the Si-Al-Zr-O amorphous bulk
Author
Shuquan LIANG*, Shaoqiang LI, Xiaoping TAN, Yan TANG, Yong ZHANG
Institute
School of Material Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410083, P.R. China
Keywords:
Si-Al-Zr-O amorphous bulk; crystallization; activation energy; composite ceramics
Abstract

The main components were selected based on SiO2-Al2O3-ZrO2 (SAZ) phase diagram. Under 1700¡æ, the homogenous full-density amorphous bulk was obtained. The Si-Al-Zr-O composite ceramics with ultra fine grains were obtained via the given heat treatment processing. The effects of heat treatment processing on the crystallization process of the Si-Al-Zr-O amorphous bulk were analyzed with the aid of differential scanning calorimetric (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD)£¬infrared spectra (IR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that the crystallization of SAZ amorphous bulk begins at about 950¡æ and completes at about 1150¡æ. The main phases are mullite, zirconia. The additions of ZrO2, TiO2 are useful to improve the crystallization behavior. With the content of ZrO2 increasing, the t-ZrO2 and mullite crystallization temperatures are decreased. The existence of ZrO2 can decrease the activation energy of mullite effectively. In addition, with the increase of the heat treatment temperatures, the crystallized grains grow rapidly from 40 nm to 1 ¦Ìm. Consequently, the transformation of Zirconia from tetragonal into monoclinic will be induced.

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