Study of Polymorphs of Zirconia in the System ZrO₂: ƞ wt% Re₂O₃ Obtained by Polymeric Precursor Method

Abstract

In this paper we propose the stabilization of zirconium oxide with controlled additions of a rare earth elements concentrate, in the system ZrO2: ƞ wt% Re2O3 (withƞ=5.36, 10.47, 13.74, 16.91 e 20) whereRe2O3is a rare earth elements concentrate composed mainly of 76.88% of yttrium oxide, 12.1% of Dysprosium oxide, 4.04% of Erbium oxide and 1.94% of Holmium oxide. The synthesis method used was the Pechini method. The results show that additions of 5.36 and 20 wt% of the concentrate are enough to stabilize the tetragonal and cubic zirconia phases respectively, and that zirconium oxide polymorphs can coexist with additions within these limit. In the characterization of the obtained powders are presented and discussed the following results: differential scanning calorimetry, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Also, it was necessary to make analysis by Rietveld refinement because they had severe overlap in the diffraction peaks. One of the most relevant results is obtaining a raw material, cheap to be used in many technological applications.