Fabrication of Zirconia/ 304 Stainless Steel Functionally Graded Materials Using Centrifugal Slurry Methods and Spark Plasma Sintering

Functionally graded materials (FGMs) are multi-phase composites to be engineered with gradual spatial variations of constituents. Centrifugal techniques enable to have a continuous gradient manner in FGMs. In this study, zirconia (ZrO2)/ 304 stainless steel (SUS304) FGMs were fabricated using centrifugal slurry methods with powders of ZrO2 and SUS304 mixed with a dispersant, ammonium polycarboxylic acid (PCA). The green body samples produced by centrifugal techniques were consolidated using spark plasma sintering (SPS). The fabricated samples were investigated on their microstructures and contents using scanning electron microscope (SEM) with EDX and micro Vickers and nanoindentation hardness. The results demonstrated that controlling of the continuous gradient were possibly achieved using the combination of the current techniques.