Study of the Sintering of Mixtures Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>-Nb<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub> and Y<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>-Nb<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub>

Abstract

Al2O3-Nb2O5 has been widely explored as one of the most used material for sintering mixing in the literature, due to its excellent hardness properties, used in armor. In this study, Al2O3-Nb2O5 and Y2O3-Nb2O5 powders were prepared, with 50% in mole fraction of each oxide. The mixtures were subjected to high energy milling in an eccentric ball mill for 3 h, dried and sieved in a sieve vibrator. The green bodies were compacted at 70 MPa and sintered from 1250 to 1650 °C for 3 h, at 100 °C steps. The materials were characterized by quantitative X-Ray diffraction (XRD) using Rietveld method and by mass loss. The Al2O3-Nb2O5 mixtures experienced a weight loss of 84% at sintering temperatures of 1550 and 1650 °C.