Ceramic composites based on Zirconia Toughened Alumina (ZTA) are a good option to meet the requirements of outstanding mechanical properties in modern manufacturing and medical science. In this study, the influences of TiO2 on microstructural, physical, and mechanical properties of ZTA-CeO2 composites are examined by keeping CeO2 fixed at 5 wt% and varying TiO2 from 0 to 4 wt%. Each combination was pressed at a pressure of 300 MPa for 2 min in a hydraulic press. The pressed samples were sintered at 1450 °C for 4 h at atmospheric pressure. The prepared ceramic composites were characterized for their microstructure analysis, phase analysis, density, porosity, Vickers hardness, fracture toughness, and diametral tensile strength (DTS). TiO2 was found to have a substantial impact on the solidification of the composites by lowering the sintering temperature. SEM images showed that the lowest grain size of alumina was attained at 1.5 wt% TiO2, which resulted in the lowest porosity as well as the highest density, hardness, and fracture toughness of the composites. The XRD analysis revealed a secondary phase, Al2TiO5, after the 1.5 wt% TiO2 addition. This phase increased the size of the alumina grains and made the composites more porous and less dense, which resulted in lower hardness and fracture toughness than the maximum. Therefore, the composite (ZTA-CeO2) with 1.5 wt% TiO2 was found to have the optimum results with density (4.16 g/cm3), percentage of porosity (8%), Vickers hardness (1485 HV), fracture toughness (7.54 MPa√m), and DTS (126.4 MPa).
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