Transparent Y0.16Zr0.84O1.92 ceramics sintered from co-precipitated nanopowder

Abstract Y0.16Zr0.84O1.92 transparent ceramics were successfully fabricated by air pre-sintering combined with HIP post-treatment from the nanopowder synthesized by the co-precipitation method. Fine and low-agglomerated Y0.16Zr0.84O1.92 powder with the average particle size of 14.8 nm was obtained by calcining the precursor at 800 °C for 4 h. The influences of pre-sintering temperature on the microstructure and optical quality of Y0.16Zr0.84O1.92 ceramics were investigated. It is found that the relative density of pre-sintered Y0.16Zr0.84O1.92 ceramics increases from 82.1% to 96.1% and the average grain size increases from 0.6 μm to 6.0 μm with the pre-sintering temperature increasing from 1250 °C to 1500 °C. The Y0.16Zr0.84O1.92 ceramic sample pre-sintered at 1300 °C for 2 h and HIP post-treated at 1800 °C for 3 h without sintering additives exhibits the best transparency. In-line transmittance of Y0.16Zr0.84O1.92 ceramics with the thickness of 1.0 mm reaches 72.4% at 800 nm, which is near to the theoretical transmittance.