Growth kinetics of tetragonal and monoclinic ZrO sub(2) crystallites in 3 mol% yttria partially stabilized ZrO sub(2) (3Y-PSZ) precursor powder

The growth kinetics of tetragonal and monoclinic ZrO sub(2) crystallites in 3 mol% yttria partially stabilized ZrO sub(2) (3Y-PSZ) precursor powder has been investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) specific surface area analysis, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high resolution TEM (HRTEM). After calcination of the 3Y-PSZ precursor powder between 773 and 1073 K for 2 h, the crystalline structures were composed of tetragonal and monoclinic ZrO sub(2) as the primary and secondary phases, respectively. When the 3Y-PSZ precursor powder was calcined at 773 K for 2 h, the BET specific surface area was 97.13 m super(2)/g, which is equivalent to a particle size of 10.30 nm. The crystallite sizes determined via XRD and BET agreed well, indicating that the powder was virtually non-agglomerated. The growth kinetics of tetragonal and monoclinic ZrO sub(2) crystallite isothermal growth in the 3Y-PSZ precursor powder are described by: D super(2) sub(te) = (4.57 + or - 0.55)t super(0.12+ or -0.02) exp(-(ProQuest: Formulae and/or non-USASCII text omitted)) and D super(2) sub(m) = (4.40 + or - 1.63)t super(0.17+ or -0.08) exp(- (ProQuest: Formulae and/or non-USASCII text omitted)), respectively, for 773 K [< or =]T [< or =] 1073 K. D sub(t)eand D sub(m)denote the crystallite si ze of tetragonal and monoclinic ZrO sub(2) at time t and temperature T, respectively.