Mechanical Characterization of Conventional and Non-Conventional Sintering Methods of Commercial and Lab-Synthesized Y-TZP Zirconia for Dental Applications

Abstract

Ceramics for dental applications have become increasingly important in the last decades. Particularly, the introduction of yttria-stabilized zirconia tetragonal polycrystalline (Y-TZP) materials as an alternative to the manufacturing of dental implants and prosthesis has provided a powerful tool to meet the demands required for these replacements in terms of biocompatibility, toughness, hardness and optical properties. Several commercial Y-TZP materials are currently available on the market and strong efforts in research and development facilities are being carried out to improve processing of Y-TZP to fully consolidate odontological pieces. Novel processing methods for ceramic powder sintering, including Y-TZP, aim to reduce processing times and production costs significantly, while maintaining or even improving the resulting microstructure and mechanical properties of the material. One of these methods includes microwave sintering. The purpose of this study is to characterize and compare the resulting properties of Y-TZP materials after conventional sintering and the non-conventional method of microwave heating. In this work one commercial material and one laboratory-synthesized Y-TZP powder are considered. The results suggest that microwave sintering results, generally, in better mechanical properties of the material in terms of hardness and fracture toughness than conventional sintering.