Preparation and densification of nanostructured Y-TZP ceramic monoliths by sol-gel

Y-TZP seeded gel monoliths have been prepared by a sol-gel method based on the coprecipitation of Zr4+ and Y3+ precursors as hydroxides and the stabilisation of the suspension in pure ethanol with a disc turbine. The addition of solid Y-TZP nanometer-size seed particles into the Y-TZP precursor solution play a crucial role during crystallisation and densification of monoliths. Basically, induced a preferential nucleation, which enhance the crystallisation kinetics and the activation energy is reasonably lowered. As a result of the increased nucleation frequency for the crystallisation process a well-developed homogeneous porous microstructure is obtained facilitating the sintering and so the densification at lower temperatures. In this way, Y-TZP highly densificated ceramics monoliths have been obtained at 1050 degrees C, with a grain size within the nanometer range.