Fabrication of complex-shaped Y-TZP/Al2O3 nanocomposites

Gelcasting is a very useful technique for producing ceramic green parts with complex shapes. Although it has been successfully applied to ceramic systems consisting of micron size powders, there is little report on gelcasting of ceramics containing nanoparticles. In this work, ceramic system with nano-size ZrO2–Y2O3–A12O3 powders (30–40 nm in size) have been successfully gelcast to form complex-shaped parts. After pressureless-sintering, the Y-TZP/Al2O3 nanocomposites with an average grain size of 220 nm are successfully fabricated.