Influence of Transferred Arc Plasma Melting Time on the Formation of Phase and Microstructure of Mullite-Zirconia Composite

Amarnath P,Suresh K,Yugeswaran S,Navaneetha Pandiyaraj K

doi:10.34256/famr2124

Abstract

Transferred arc plasma is an effective and simple technique to synthesis a high temperature reaction ceramic composite material. In this paper, 20 kW transferred arc plasma torch was used to synthesis mullite-zirconia composites through the solid-state reaction of 3:2 mole ratio of ball milled alumina and zircon powders. Dissociation of zircon in a thermal plasma arc is utilized as to prepare mullite-zirconia composites. The ball milled samples are melted for 3, 6, 9 and 12 minutes in transferred arc plasma torch at 20 kW power level with 10 lpm of argon flow rate and cooled by air. The phase and microstructure of melted samples were determined from X-ray diffraction (XRD) and SEM images. The obtained results shows that the processing time significantly influence on the formation of phase and microstructure of the mullite- zirconia composite.

Highlights

Mullite (3Al2O3. 2SiO2) is the only stable compound in the alumina–silica system at room temperature and pressure
Figure. 2 (a-d) shows the X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of transferred arc plasma melted mullite-zirconia composites with different melting time
The tetragonal phase zirconia did not appear in any samples which treated in transferred arc plasma due to the presence of SiO2 in the reaction system [10, 11]

Summary

Introduction

Mullite (3Al2O3. 2SiO2) is the only stable compound in the alumina–silica system at room temperature and pressure. Methods for synthesis of mullite-zirconia composite based on transferred arc plasma melting of alumina and zircon mixtures has been proposed and the influence of melting time was studied. (a-d) shows the XRD pattern of transferred arc plasma melted mullite-zirconia composites with different melting time. In addition to the mullite peaks, a monoclinic phase zirconia and zircon peaks are present in 3-minute melted samples.

Results

Conclusion