Contamination Study of Zirconia on the Densification Process and Properties of Transparent MgAl₂O₄ Ceramics

Yi Li; Qun Zeng; Jian Zhang; Dan Han; Shiwei Wang

doi:10.3390/ma12050749

Contamination Study of Zirconia on the Densification Process and Properties of Transparent MgAl₂O₄ Ceramics

Materials (Basel). 2019 Mar 5;12(5):749. doi: 10.3390/ma12050749.

Authors

Yi Li^{1

2

3}, Qun Zeng⁴, Jian Zhang^{5

6

7}, Dan Han^{8

9}, Shiwei Wang^{10

11

12}

Affiliations

¹ Guangzhou Key Laboratory for Special Fiber Photonic Devices and Applications, School of Information and Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China. liyiliyi7@163.com.
² State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China. liyiliyi7@163.com.
³ Key Laboratory of Transparent Opto-functional Inorganic Materials, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201899, China. liyiliyi7@163.com.
⁴ Guangzhou Key Laboratory for Special Fiber Photonic Devices and Applications, School of Information and Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China. qunzeng@scnu.edu.cn.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China. jianzhang@mail.sic.ac.cn.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Transparent Opto-functional Inorganic Materials, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201899, China. jianzhang@mail.sic.ac.cn.
⁷ Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. jianzhang@mail.sic.ac.cn.
⁸ State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China. handan@mail.sic.ac.cn.
⁹ Key Laboratory of Transparent Opto-functional Inorganic Materials, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201899, China. handan@mail.sic.ac.cn.
¹⁰ State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China. swwang51@mail.sic.ac.cn.
¹¹ Key Laboratory of Transparent Opto-functional Inorganic Materials, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201899, China. swwang51@mail.sic.ac.cn.
¹² Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. swwang51@mail.sic.ac.cn.

Abstract

In this paper, transparent magnesium aluminate (MgAl₂O₄) spinel ceramics are fabricated through pressureless sintering combined with hot isostatic pressing (HIPing). To investigate the effect of zirconia on sintering behavior, microstructure, and optical properties of transparent spinel ceramics, different contents of zirconia were added. The results show that zirconia can promote the densification process by the formation of anion vacancies. The resulting zirconia exists as tetragonal phase along the grain boundaries. The average grain size of resulting ceramics depends on the content of zirconia and HIPing condition. Small zirconia content did not deteriorate the optical properties of samples. A 5-mm-thick sample with 0.05 wt% ZrO₂ pre-sintered at 1500 °C followed by HIPing treatment at 1550 °C achieved a high in-line transmittance of 75.5% at 400 nm and 85% at 1100 nm.

Keywords: microstructure; optical properties; spinel; transparent ceramics; zirconia.

Grants and funding

2017YFB0310500/National Key R&D Program of China