Quantitative characterization of various tetragonal zirconia polycrystals (TZPs)

The microstructures, Y2O3 content and phases of 3 mol% yttria-doped tetragonal zirconia polycrystals (TZPs) were quantitatively investigated. Five yttria-doped zirconia samples were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) or electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA) equipped with wavelength dispersive spectroscopy (WDS). The amount of phase transformation was determined by X-ray diffractometry (XRD). Operating conditions of EDS or WDS were controlled based on the needs of statistical analysis. The Studentʹs t distribution in a confident interval of 99% was adopted and applied to reveal the level of homogeneity of Y2O3 content in five TZP samples. Based on the results and analytical methods, the quality, including sintered density, the fraction of large grains, the transformation capability, and the homogeneity of Y2O3 content of TZP can be distinctly verified.