The purpose of this study was to investigate the microstructures and mechanical properties of zirconia toughened alumina (ZTA) ceramics prepared from two kinds of 3Y-TZP powders. ZTA composites were prepared by adding two kinds of 3Y-TZP powders, 3YEH (BET = 7m2/g) and 3YEM (BET = 16m2/g), to α-alumina in the range of 5-25 wt%. It was found that the microstructure photographs of the ZTA composites showed that the average grain size of alumina decreased as the content of zirconia increased. In our present study, specimens containing 3YEM zirconia exhibited smaller grain sizes compared to those of 3YEH zirconia. The Vickers hardness of the ZTA composites that were sintered at 1600˚C for 2 hrs was found to smoothly decrease with increasing zirconia content because of the low Young modulus in zirconia. The Vickers hardness of the ZTA containing 3YEH zirconia was greater than that of the 3YEM zirconia. In substance, the fracture toughness (K1c) of the ZTA composites increased as the content of zirconia increased. The fracture toughness (K1c) of ZTA containing 3YEM zirconia was greater than that of 3YEH zirconia.

In this study, intermediate-mixed powders were prepared by loading zirconia powders initially in a ball-mill jar and loading alumina powders afterward; the initial-mixed powders were produced by loading zirconia and alumina powders together in the ball-mill jar. The effect of such differences in mixing method on the mechanical properties was investigated. In intermediate-mixed powders, the volume fraction of large particles slightly increased and, simultaneously, zirconia particles formed agglomerates that, due to early ball-mill loading of the zirconia powders only, were more dispersed than were the initial-mixed powders. For the intermediate-mixed powders, zirconia agglomerates were destroyed more quickly than were initial-mixed powders, so the number of dispersed zirconia particles rose and the inhibitory effect of densification due to the addition of a second phase was more obvious. In the microstructure of intermediate-mixed powders, zirconia grains were homogeneously dispersed and grain growth by coalescence was found to occur with increasing sintering temperature. For the initial-mixed powders, large zirconia grains formed by localized early-densification on the inside contacts of some zirconia agglomerates were observed in the early stages of sintering. The intermediate-mixed powders had slightly lower hardness values as a whole but higher fracture toughness compared to that of the initial-mixed powders.

In order to increase the toughness of ZTA(zirconia toughened alumina) ceramics, the present study focused on rearrangement and densification of particles according to the particle size of the parent material. When rough alumina was used for production of ZTA, densification behavior was observed in the specimen sintered at a temperature over 1550˚C. However, it was found that the densification behavior was occurred in the specimen sintered at 1450˚C when fine alumina powder was used. High relative density exceeding 98% was obtained when fine alumina powder was mixed with 15 wt% of 3Y-TZP and sintered at 1600˚C. Also, a hardness of 1820.2 Hv was obtained when a specimen containing 10 wt% of 3Y-TZP was sintered at 1600˚C. In the case of 3Y-TZP containing rough alumina powder that had been sintered the hardness value was around 1720.3 Hv. It was predicted that an improved toughening effect in ZTA could be achieved by using finer alumina powder as the parent material.