A novel spray co-precipitation method to prepare nanocrystalline Y2O3 powders for transparent ceramics

A novel spray co-precipitation method was adopted to synthesize well dispersed nanocrystalline Y2O3 powders for transparent ceramics. Several analytic techniques such as XRD, SEM, BET and UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer were used to determine the properties of coprecipitated powders, and the microstructure and optical properties of as-fabricated ceramics. The influences of the aging time on powders and ceramics were systematically investigated. Precursors were completely reached to yield the Y2O3 phase after being calcined at 1250 A degrees C in air. The calcined Y2O3 powders exhibited an approximately spherical morphology with narrow size distribution and weak agglomeration, with mean particle size of similar to 140 nm. The co-precipitated nanopowders with an aging time of 12 h exhibited the best sintering activity due to the low agglomeration, and the in-line transmittance of Y2O3 ceramic sintered at 1800 A degrees C for 8 h in vacuum reached to 77.2% at 1064 nm (1 mm thickness).