Fabrication and characterization of ZrO2/Ni composites

Abstract

This paper focuses on a research on the influence of nickel content in zirconia matrix and its impact on the mechanical properties of obtained composites. ZrO 2 /Ni mixed powders were uniaxially pressed and sintered in a nitrogen atmosphere to obtain ZrO 2 /Ni composites that were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and energy-dispersive Xray spectroscopy (EDS). The stereological analysis allows obtaining information about the size distribution of zirconia grains in the sintered composites. Relative density, hardness, fracture toughness, and bending strength were also analyzed. The results revealed that the presence of Ni particles in the composites affects the mechanical properties of the materials. An increased Ni concentration caused a decrease in Vickers hardness and increased the fracture toughness of the ZrO 2 /Ni composites compared to the ZrO 2 samples. This kind of composite is of interest for temperature and flow sensors, thermal barrier coatings for gas turbines and supersonic propulsion systems of spacecrafts, as well as as a material for anode in solid oxide fuel cell.

Particle-Reinforced Ceramic Matrix Composites—Selected Examples

“…Moreover, because of their high hardness, the effect of hardening can be noticed. Our own investigations of composites ZrO2-Ni and ZrO2-Ti, in which very fine oxides particles were identified, confirm this effect [53,54,57]. In particular, in the ZrO2-Ti system, very fine (100 nm) phases, Zr-Ti-O and precipitation of titanium oxides ZrTiO2 were located in the ceramic matrix [49].…”

Effect of the sintering temperature on microstructure and properties of Al2O3–Cu–Ni hybrid composites obtained by PPS

“…The changes of size distribution of the Al 2 O 3 grains in the obtained composites for different temperatures were determined using a stereological analysis. Quantitative description of the microstructure of the samples was made based on SEM images of randomly selected areas on the fracture of samples executed by Micrometer computer image analyser . Furthermore, based on the stereological analysis shape parameters of Al 2 O 3 grains were defined: coefficient describing the surface development ( R = p / p c · d 2 ), convexity ( W = p / p c ), and an elongation ( α = d max / d 2 ), where p —perimeter of void [µm] and p c —Cauchy perimeter [µm], d 2 —diameter of circle of the same surface as the surface of the analyzed grain [µm], d max —maximum diameter of void projection [µm] …”

“…Quantitative description of the microstructure of the samples was made based on SEM images of randomly selected areas on the fracture of samples executed by Micrometer computer image analyser. 29,30 Furthermore, based on the stereological analysis shape parameters of Al 29 The hardness was estimated by means of a Vickers hardness tester (WPM LEIPZIG HPO-250), with a 196 N load and a 15-second holding time. The Vickers hardness was made for sintered and polished samples.…”

Investigation on microstructure and selected properties of aluminum oxide–copper–nickel ceramic–metal composites

“…While the most commonly used metallic powders added to the ceramic matrix include: copper (Liu et al 2017;Yin Editorial responsibility: Fatih ŞEN. et al 2020), nickel (Zygmuntowicz et al 2018), aluminum (Xie et al 2020), iron (Goncharov et al 2009), titanium (Klimov et al 2020;Shengfang et al 2020), and molybdenum (Matysiak et al 2005).…”