Investigation of mechanical properties and transparency of spark plasma sintered Mg2+ and Y3+ codoped α-Al2O3 nanoparticles synthesized via coprecipitation

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the effect of different amounts of doping elements (magnesium and yttrium ions) on the hardness, elastic modulus, flexural strength, and transparency of alumina ceramics. For this purpose, different amounts of Mg2+ and Y3+ doped α-Al2O3 nanoparticles were synthesized via the co-precipitation method. The results revealed that the majority of Mg2+ and Y3+ doped α-Al2O3 nanoparticles have a particle size of 300–400 nm. Furthermore, the density and transparency (60% in-line transmittance at a wavelength of 5 μm, with a sample thickness of 2.4 mm) of the bulk materials prepared with doping of 100 ppm Mg2+and 400 ppm Y3+ (100M400Y) presented the best performance compared with other samples. Furthermore, the hardness and Young modulus of this sample were 28 GPa and 349 GPa, respectively. The flexural strength of the 100M400Y sample reached the highest value, 193 MPa, due to the smaller grain size and minimal porosity.