Quantitative Analysis on the Influence of SiO2 Content on the Phase Behavior of ZrO2

Abstract

The salient features of bioinert, chemical resistance, and high mechanical strength of synthetic ZrO2 and the bioactivity characteristics of SiO2 has been well‐known in biomedical applications. This study has been aimed at the synthesis and quantitative structural analysis of SiO2‐stabilized tetragonal ZrO2. The synthesis has been performed through sol–gel technique and the resultant characterization of the powders has been done through X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and X‐ray fluorescence (XRF) techniques. Quantitative analysis on the ZrO2–SiO2 binary oxide systems has been performed by Rietveld Refinement using GSAS‐EXPUGI software package. The results from this study have confirmed that SiO2 concentration has played a major role in the stabilization of tetragonal ZrO2. Lower SiO2 concentration has resulted in the formation of mixture of any two different phases comprising of monoclinic ZrO2 (P21/c symmetry) or cubic ZrO2 (Fm‐3 m symmetry) or tetragonal ZrO2 (P42/nmc symmetry), whereas higher SiO2 concentration has resulted in the stabilization of single phase tetragonal ZrO2 (P42/nmc symmetry).