Abstract
Phase-pure Lanthanum zirconate nanopowders (La2Zr2O7, LZ) were synthesized by co-precipitation method and subjected to densification studies. No additive/sintering aid was used, neither was any slurry processing performed to improve the quality of the powders. LZ ceramic with near-theoretical density (>98%) was obtained at 1150°C by spark plasma sintering; the lowest sintering temperature reported till date. The LZ ceramic comprised of small equiaxed grains (~300nm) and recorded a significant improvement in hardness (~14GPa) and scratch resistance measured by nanoindentation. The study clarifies that all previous reports involving poor sinterability of LZ system was related to inferior quality precursors.
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