Interphase boundary in zirconia - carbide particulate composites

摘要

The paper presents result of bending strength, fracture toughness and wear susceptibility measurements of particulate composites with TZP matrix and different carbide inclusions. All carbides used as additives are chemically stable in relation to the zirconia. They also have similar mechanical properties but their incorporation to the zirconia lead to the materials with different properties. Some composites are much tougher then the other ones. The composite microstructure observation conducted with SEM and TEM showed the mutual orientation of zirconia and carbide phases. The electron backscattered diffraction (IEBSD) technique was used. For tougher composites the crystallographic correlation between oxide and carbide phases was found. This phenomenon probably influences the strength of the interphase boundary and finally leads to the fracture toughness increase. The misorientation distribution functions (MDF) were calculated for adjacent zirconia and carbide grains.