Synthesis and Rapid Consolidation of W-1.5 ZrO2 Composite

$ZrO_2$ is a candidate material for hip and knee joint replacements because of its excellent combination of biocompatibility, corrosion resistance and low density. However, the drawback of pure $ZrO_2$ is a low fracture toughness at room temperature. One of the most obvious tactics to cope with this problem is to fabricate a nanostructured composite material. Nanomaterials can be produced with improved mechanical properties(hardness and fracture toughness). The high-frequency induction heated sintering method takes advantage of simultaneously applying induced current and mechanical pressure during sintering. As a result, nanostructured materials can be achieved within very short time. In this study, W and $ZrO_2$ nanopowders are mechanochemically synthesized from $WO_3$ and Zr powders according to the reaction($WO_3+3/2Zr{\rightarrow}W+3/2ZrO_2$). The milled powders are then sintered using high-frequency induction heating within two minutes under the uniaxial pressure of 80MPa. The average fracture toughness and hardness of the nanostructured W-3/2 $ZrO_2$ composite sintered at $1300^{\circ}C$ are $540kg/mm^2$ and $5MPa{\cdot}m^{1/2}$, respectively. The fracture toughness of the composite is higher than that of monolithic $ZrO_2$. The phase and microstructure of the composite is also investigated by XRD and FE-SEM.

W-1.5 ZrO2 복합재료 합성과 급속소결