Effect of Calcination on the Sintering of Gel‐Derived, Zirconia‐Toughened Alumina

The densification behavior of ZrO 2 (+ 3 mol% Y 2 O 3 )/85 wt% Al 2 O 3 powder compacts, prepared by the hydrolysis of metal chlorides, can be characterized by a transition‐ and an α‐alumina densification stage. The sintering behavior is strongly determined by the densification of the transition alumina aggregates. Intra‐aggregate porosity, resulting from calcination at 800°C, partly persists during sintering and alumina phase transformation and negatively influences further macroscopic densification. Calcination at 1200°C, however, densifies the transition alumina aggregates prior to sintering and enables densification to almost full density (96%) within 2 h at 1450°C, thus obtaining a microstructure with an alumina and a zirconia grain size of 1 μm and 0.3–0.4 μm, respectively.