A novel spray co-precipitation method to prepare nanocrystalline Y2O3 powders for transparent ceramics

Abstract

A novel spray co-precipitation method was adopted to synthesize well dispersed nanocrystalline Y2O3 powders for transparent ceramics. Several analytic techniques such as XRD, SEM, BET and UV–Vis–NIR spectrophotometer were used to determine the properties of coprecipitated powders, and the microstructure and optical properties of as-fabricated ceramics. The influences of the aging time on powders and ceramics were systematically investigated. Precursors were completely reached to yield the Y2O3 phase after being calcined at 1250 °C in air. The calcined Y2O3 powders exhibited an approximately spherical morphology with narrow size distribution and weak agglomeration, with mean particle size of ~140 nm. The co-precipitated nanopowders with an aging time of 12 h exhibited the best sintering activity due to the low agglomeration, and the in-line transmittance of Y2O3 ceramic sintered at 1800 °C for 8 h in vacuum reached to 77.2% at 1064 nm (1 mm thickness).