Unmatched Toughness With Zirconia Toughened Alumina (ZTA) Ceramics
Zirconia Toughened Alumina (ZTA) ceramics boast unparalleled toughness. They boast superior wear resistance, chemical inertness and low friction for effortless performance in everyday tasks – not to mention higher hardness and stiffness than metals.
ZTA involves metastable tetragonal zirconia polycrystal agglomerates in an alumina matrix that undergo stress-induced phase transformation to monoclinic form under stress, thus dispersing shear strain and stopping crack propagation, commonly known as transformation toughening.
Corrosion Resistant
ZTA offers superior chemical resistance compared to pure alumina and can withstand extreme temperatures without degradation, making it the ideal material choice for industrial applications in harsh environments and conditions.
ZTA’s toughness is enhanced by zirconia particles which disperse and absorb energy, helping prevent cracking. When doped with yttrium oxide, zirconia changes from metastable tetragonal phase to monoclinic during stress to create compressive stresses that increase fracture toughness.
Zirconia-based ceramics such as ZTA contain alumina particles to resist thermal shock. This allows it to withstand rapid temperature changes without cracking or failure in high performance applications like grinding and cutting; its low linear and torsional expansion provides outstanding load-bearing capabilities and performance capabilities. ZTA boasts 2-3 times stronger tensile strength compared to pure alumina while having low linear/torsional expansion coefficients for exceptional load bearing capacities and performance capabilities.
High Stiffness
ZTA combines the strength and durability of alumina with zirconia toughening for an exceptional material for demanding applications. This combination offers unparalleled strength, fracture toughness, elasticity and hardness properties in one package.
Claussen discovered in 1976 that adding unstabilized zirconia to alumina significantly increases its fracture toughness, due to the tetragonal-monoclinic transformation of dispersed fine tetragonal precipitates dispersed within its matrix. Such metastable precipitates are restrained from changing until released by an approaching crack front or other source of relief from their constraint, such as by melting away.
Hot-pressed 10mol% yttria-stabilized zirconia (10YSZ), reinforced with either particulates or platelets containing from 0 to 30wt% alumina content were subjected to rigorous strength, fracture toughness and slow crack growth tests at 1000C in air. Results demonstrated that maximum flexural strength and fracture toughness for platelet composites was attained with this composition content.
High Tensile Strength
Zirconia ceramics offer an extraordinary combination of strength, resilience, and versatility that far outshines traditional technical ceramics. Zirconia formulations like ZTA provide solutions for today’s most difficult applications ranging from aerospace components enduring harsh environments to next-generation biomedical implants designed for longevity – providing reliable solutions for today’s most pressing needs.
ZTA stands out amongst other materials due to its superior flexural strength, fracture toughness and resistance to crack propagation due to its metastable tetragonal phase. This transformation into monoclinic zirconia at low temperature compresses the zone ahead of a crack front to stop further growth.
Yttria Partially Stabilized Zirconia (Y-TZP) and Cerium Partially Stabilized Zirconia (Ce-TZP) exhibit exceptional toughness characteristics similar to ZTA due to the retention of tetragonal phase by maintaining yttria or cerium at lower temperatures, permitting transformation at a more manageable temperature range and showing less surface damage during cyclic loading tests than Alumina counterparts.
Low Friction
Zirconia is one of the hardest engineering ceramics available and its low friction properties help increase wear resistance while decreasing lubrication requirements.
ZTA ceramics contain alumina for maximum toughness. This allows metastable yttria-stabilised tetragonal zirconia particles in an alumina matrix to remain unaltered, remaining crystalized by virtue of an interwoven network of grains.
Controlled composition and processing conditions ensure that spontaneous tetragonal-to-monoclinic transformation does not occur upon cooling from the sintering temperature, contributing to multi-hit capability in fracture toughness testing. Furthermore, high homogeneity in alumina-zirconia composites with small grain sizes results in lower crack energy which in turn translates to shorter crack lengths during diamond indentation tests.
High Thermal Expansion
Alumina matrix’s binding force enables it to prevent the tetragonal zirconia particles from transitioning into monoclinic zirconia upon cooling, thus making 10 mole % yttria-stabilized zirconia-alumina composites stable and crack free.
Addition of cerium to zirconia allows it to be partially stabilized (Ce-TZP). Ce-TZP keeps its tetragonal phase at room temperature and significantly increases toughness, fracture toughness and flexural strength compared to traditional dental ceramic materials.
Zirconia Toughened Alumina composites incorporating Ce-TZP, yttria-stabilized zirconia (Y-TZP), or magnesia-stabilized zirconia (Mg-PSZ) exhibit exceptional toughness that surpasses that of both alumina and monolithic zirconia, making ZTA the perfect candidate for demanding applications like medical implants, aerospace components and industrial machinery. ZTA also boasts many chemical resistance properties that protect it against acids, salt solutions, molten salts alkalis as well as high temperatures.