Sintering of translucent and single-phase nanostructured scandia-stabilized zirconia

[Display omitted] •Translucent scandia-stabilized zirconia pellets were produced by high-pressure SPS.•Specimens were sintered at low temperatures (700–900 °C) and high pressures (1.4–2 GPa).•The average grain size ranged from 8 to 20 nm in fully-dense ceramics.•Cubic structure was stabilized within a wide range of scandia content (6–15 mol%). Fully-dense and single-phase nanostructured scandia-stabilized zirconia specimens were produced by high-pressure spark plasma sintering technique. Nanocrystalline powders were prepared by the coprecipitation method. Green pellets were sintered at temperatures varying from 700 to 900 °C and pressures from 1.4 to 2 GPa, resulting in dense microstructures with single-phase fluorite-type cubic structure within a wide range of Sc2O3 content (6–15 mol%). The average grain size of sintered specimens ranged from 8 to 20 nm. Transmittance spectra confirm translucence in sintered specimens, which is consistent with full density. The results reported here reveal that the polymorphism challenge in the zirconia-scandia system can be successfully suppressed by this consolidation technique, which allows for controlling the grain size of bulk specimens.