Optimized sintering and mechanical properties of Y-TZP ceramics for dental restorations by adding lithium disilicate glass ceramics

Abstract The novel dental ceramics can be fabricated at lower temperatures when sol-gel derived lithium disilicate glass ceramics (LDGC) was used as an additive for yttria stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystalline (Y-TZP) ceramics. The effect of LDGC on the sintering, mechanical, and translucent properties of Y-TZP ceramics was investigated in the present study. The results showed that the LDGC additive effectively improved the densification of Y-TZP at 1100 °C, which was much lower than the sintering temperature for pure Y-TZP. When sintered at 1100 °C, the Y-TZP with 1 wt% LDGC reached a relative density of 95.45%, and prossessed a flexural strength of 482.4 MPa and a fracture toughness of 5.94 MPa·m^1/2. Moreover, its translucency was also improved. While, the addition of LDGC could result in an escape of yttrium atoms from the grain lattice of zirconia, which induced the tetragonal-monoclinic transformation of zirconia and abnormal growth of monoclinic grains. The escaped yttrium atoms diffused into the intergranular glass phase. The results indicated that the novel Y-TZP-LDGC ceramics has a great potential to be used for all-ceramic restorations.