Influence of Manganese Oxide on the Sintering Properties of Ceria-Stabilized Tetragonal Zirconia

Ceria stabilized zirconia with critical grain size is found to exhibit higher strength and higher resistance towards low temperature moisture degradation, The mechanical properties are greatly influenced by the size of the tetragonal grains. The effectiveness of doping with MnO2 (0.2 to wt %) in retarding degradation mechanical properties of ceria stabilized tetragonal zirconia (Ce-ZrO2) was evaluated by pressureless sintering within a temperature range from 1250°C-1550°C. Impact of manganese oxide to the mechanical properties and ageing resistance to the Ce-ZrO2 is truly beneficial. 0.4 wt% MnO2 at 1450°C revealed that, the tetragonal grain size was not affected by dopant level.With optimum dopant the 3 mol% ceria (3Ce-ZrO2) ceramic demonstarted the Vicker hardness of 11.8 GPa , fracture toughnessof 10.0 MPam 1/2 , flexural strength 920 MPa and Young modulus of 210 GPa. The 3Ce-ZrO2 doped with 0.4wt% MnO2 sintered 1450°C could be the best building block for biomedical applications.