Effect of bead-milling treatment on the dispersion of tetragonal zirconia nanopowder and improvements of two-step sintering

Abstract

The advantages of a good colloidal processing of tetragonal zirconia for achieving a full densification and a small grain size were determined in this study. The optimization of slurry preparation was studied to obtain well-dispersed suspensions. A deagglomeration technique was applied by bead-milling using grinding media of 50 μm diameter and initial particle size and green density were improved. Colloidal processing was considered responsible for the improvements of particle packing that increase the green density. A conventional sintering at low temperatures and two-step sintering were observed to be more effective with the final bead-milling treatment. © 2009 The Ceramic Society of Japan.