Mechanical behaviour of extremely tough TZP bioceramics

摘要

Tetragonal Zirconia Polycrystals (TZP) is attractive for structural biomedical applications because of their excellent mechanical properties at room-temperature, which include high strength, fracture toughness and wear resistance. In this work, zirconia stabilized with Y or Yb or Yb + Nd, all containing 0.5 vol.% Al2O3, were prepared by hot-pressing (HP) at 50-60 MPa and sintered at 1300-1350 degrees C for 1 h. Microstructural features, phase composition and mechanical properties were investigated. The strength was measured by 4-point bending (4P-B), piston-on-three-balls (P-3B) and three-balls-on-three-balls (3B-3B) biaxial methods. Toughness was determined by indentation strength in bending (ISB). Vickers hardness (Hv) and the Young modulus (E) were also estimated. Preliminary aging behaviour (LTD) was also here considered.