Ultra-high strength ZTA ceramic foams with large amounts of intragranular structures resulting from dual-phase sol

Abstract

A creative way to overcome the general problem of high-porosity ceramic foams with low intensity has been proposed here. For the first time, zirconia toughened alumina (ZTA) ceramic foams with a large number of intragranular structures have been prepared by particle-stabilized foams using boehmite sol and ZrO2 sol as raw materials. The grain boundary mobility of alumina in ceramic foams is much higher than that of zirconia due to the extremely high sintering activity of the boehmite nanoparticles, and then a typical intragranular structure of alumina grains wrapping around zirconia grains is formed. Based on the strengthening effects of intragranular zirconia grains, the as-prepared ZTA foams have excellent mechanical properties, with ultra-high compressive strength of 10.3–88.0 MPa and high porosity of 91.0–79.1 %. This paper provides a novel strategy for the preparation of high-performance ceramic foams.