Partially stabilized zirconia single crystals: growth from the melt and investigation of the properties

The PSZ crystals of ZrO2-(2-5 mol%)Y2O3 compositions have been grown by the skull-melting technique. The effects of composition and crystallization conditions on the microstructure and properties have been studied. The crystallization conditions have been shown to affect the crystal size and compositional homogeneity. Decreasing crystallization rate has resulted in increasing of crystal size and decreasing of the concentration of impurities as compared to initial oxides. The morphology of as-grown facets was considered a key to the material microstructure. The material formation depends on the initial composition, the crystallization conditions and subsequent annealing. The distribution of the ZrO2-Y2O3 solid solution components was found to be uniform for (2-5 mol%) Y2O3 concentration range at 10-40 mm/h growth rate range. The K-eff values determined are close to 1. (C) 2004 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.