Low Temperature Stability of Cubic Zirconia

✍ Scribed by Guo, Xin

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 246 KB
• Volume: 177
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0031-8965
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1521-396x(200001)177:1<191::aid-pssa191>3.0.co;2-x

✦ Synopsis

A 9 mol% Y 2 O 3 -stabilized ZrO 2 specimen was annealed in boiling water for 1200 h, and the phase structure was examined by XRD and the chemical states of zirconium, yttrium and oxygen were examined by XPS. After annealing, the phase of the specimen remains entirely cubic, and the chemical states of the elements are not remarkably changed, suggesting that cubic ZrO 2 does not degrade to tetragonal or monoclinic phase in the environment known to cause the degradation in tetragonal ZrO 2 within 1200 h. The low temperature stability of cubic ZrO 2 is due to its much higher oxygen vacancy concentration in the space-charge layers and much thinner oxygen vacancy depletion layers in the surfaces and the grain boundaries. The much larger grain size in cubic ZrO 2 also ensures its stability.