Effect of the Cooling Ways on the Properties and Microstructure of ZrO<sub>2</sub>/ZrW<sub>2</sub>O<sub>8</sub> Ceramic Composites

Abstract

ZrO2 has been widely used due to its good physical and chemical properties and the ZrO2/ZrW2O8 ceramic composites with adjustable thermal expansion coefficient can be prepared by mixing and sintering the ZrO2 and ZrW2O8 powders. In this paper, the ZrO2/ZrW2O8 ceramic composites have been prepared by mixing, cold isostatic pressing and atmospheric sintering, and then being cooled in air or in water. We focus on the effect of the cooling ways on the properties and microstructure of the ZrO2/ZrW2O8 ceramic composites. The results show that the relative density of all samples is more than 98%. For the in-situ method, the density and flexural strength of the samples cooled in air and in water are 98.1% and 98.4%, 112.96MPa and 45.23MPa, respectively. The ZrW2O8 content and thermal expansion coefficient of the samples cooled in the air are less and higher than those in the water, respectively. For the direct mixture method, the density and flexural strength of the samples cooled in air and in water are 98.9% and 99.3%, 195.99MPa and 58.71MPa, respectively. For the four groups of the composite samples, they behave better mechanical properties after cooled in air, and lower thermal expansion coefficients after cooled in water.