• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.645-651
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• 1997

Tetragonal zirconia polycrystals (TZPs) doped with $Y_{2}O_{3}$ and $Nb_{2}O_{5}$ were prepared by the conventional sintering to enhance fracture toughness and phase stability of TZPs without controlling the grain size. TZP composites were obtained by adding the transformable TZP to the non-transformable TZP in wt%. The monolithic tetragonal $ZrO_2$, same as the composite composition containing 15 wt% transformable TZP, sintered at $1550^{\circ}C$ for 10h in air, exhibited the fracture toughness of 9$MPam^{1/2}$ and no low-and high-temperature degradation at temperatures in the range of 220 to $1000^{\circ}C$ for 100h in air. The corresponding single composition was 90.24 mol% $ZrO_2$-5.31 mol% $Y_{2}O_{3}$-4.75 mol% $Nb_{2}O_{5}$. The microstructure observation revealed that the t-$ZrO_2$ grains grew grandually with sintering time and no microcraking and twinning were observed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.204-204
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• 1998

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.217-217
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• 1998

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.345-353
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• 2001

The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of zirconium addition to $Al_3$Nb intermetallic on the crystal structural modification and microstructural characterization of $Al_3$Nb intermetallic. Elemental Al, Nb, Zr powders and arc melted $Al_3$Nb and $Al_3$Zr intermetallic mixed powders were used as starting materials. MA was carried out in an attritor rotated with 300 rpm for 20 hours. The behavior of MA between two starting materials was some-what different in which the value of internal strain of the elemental powders was higher than that of the intermetallic powder. The intermetallic powder was much more disintegrated during the MA processing. In the case of the elemental powders, AlNb$_2$ phase were transformed to Al(Nb.Zr)$_2$ as a result of ternary addition of Zr element. With the successive heat treatment at 873K for 2 hours, the Al(Nb.Zr)$_2$ phase was transformed to more stable $Al_3$(Nb.Zr) phase. This transformation was clearly confirmed by the identification of X-ray peak position shift. On the other hand, in the carte of the intermetallic powder, there was no evidence of phase transformation to other ternary intermetallic compounds or amorphous phases, even in the case of additional heat treatment. However, nano-sized intermetallic with $Al_3$Nb and $Al_3$Zr were just well distributed instead of phase transformation.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.369-374
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• 2002

To investigate the corrosion behavior of Zr-1.0Nb-xSn (x=1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5wt. %)alloy system, the corrosion tests of Zr-1.0Nb-xSn alloys were carried out in steam at $400^{\circ}C$ for 125 days and in 70ppm LiOH solution at $360^{\circ}C$ for 180 days. The matrix microstructures of the test specimens were analyzed using TEM and the oxide structures on the test specimens were analyzed using XRD. It was found from the analyses that the more Sn content the alloy had, the faster it was corroded and with the increase of Sn content in the alloy the fraction of $t-ZrO_2$ to $m-ZrO_2$ was decreased. It was also found that the alloys having more Sn showed more dislocation density than those having less.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.226-226
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• 2002

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.34 no.9
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• pp.915-920
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• 1997

Tetragonal ZrO2 polycrystal (TZP), consisted of 90.24 mol% ZrO2-5.31 mol% Y2O3-4.45 mol% Nb2O5, were prepared using hot-press and mechanical properties and high-temperature degradation were investigated. The specimen, hot-pressed for 1 h at 140$0^{\circ}C$ in Ar atmosphere, exhibited flexural strength of 1010 MPa and fracture toughness of 7.5 MPam1/2 and experienced no low-temperature degradation below 40$0^{\circ}C$. However, as aged for 100h at temperatures higher than 40$0^{\circ}C$, TZP was suffered by high-temperature degradation due to an extensive cavitation caused by the oxidation of carbon. XPS observation revealed that the carbon incorporated in TZPs during hot-pressing exists as either an ether-type CO or a carbonyl-type C=O. Despite of the high-temperature degradation of t-ZrO2 co-doped with Y2O3 and Nb2O5, its flexural strength and fracture toughness were superior to those of the commercial 3 mol% Y2O3-TZP hot-pressed under the identical condition as determined before and after the aging treatments.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.261-268
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• 2003

To investigate the matrix effect of sample for hydrogen analysis by inert gas fusion-thermal conductivity detection, calibration factor for the hydrogen analyser of the inert gas fusion-thermal conductivity detection method was measured with hydrogen standard materials in Ti, Zr-2.5Nb and by hydrogen gas dosing method. Also the hydrogen extraction efficiency for the different sample matrix, Ti and Zr-2.5Nb, was evaluated without adding tin flux. The calibration factor of the hydrogen analyser which was calibrated by hydrogen standard material in Zr-2.5Nb and Ti was 2~3% and 14% higher than that by hydrogen gas dosing method, respectively. Based on the results of calibration factor measurement, it could be concluded that the hydrogen extraction efficiency of the Ti matrix sample will be 12% lower than that of the Zr-2.5Nb. And according to the experimental results of hydrogen recovery test by no tin flux, the hydrogen recovery percentage of the Ti and Zr-2.5Nb matrix sample was about 70% but the recovery rate of Ti matrix sample was slightly lower than that of Zr-2.5Nb.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.68-74
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• 2003

The effects of Niobium on the structure and properties(especially electric properties) of passive film of Zirconium alloys in pH 8.5 buffer solution are examined by the photo-electrochemical analysis. For Zr-xNb alloys (x = 0, 0.45, 1.5, 2.5 wt%), photocurrent began to increase at the incident energy of 3.5 ~ 3.7 eV and exhibited the $1^{st}$ peak at 4.3 eV and the $2^{nd}$ peak at 5.7 eV. From $(i_{ph}hv)^{1/2}$ vs. hv plot, indirect band gap energies $E_g{^1}$= 3.01~3.47 eV, $E_g{^2}$= 4.44~4.91 eV were obtained. With increasing Nb content, the relative photocurrent intensity of $1^{st}$ peak significantly increased. Compared with photocurrent spectrum of thermal oxide of Zr-2.5Nb, It was revealed that $1^{st}$ peak in photocurrent spectrum for the passive film formed on Zr-Nb alloy was generated by two types of electron transitions; the one caused by hydrous $ZrO_2$ and the other created by Nb. Two electron transition sources were overlapped over the same range of incident photon energy. In the photocurrent spectrum for passive film formed on Zr-2.5Nb alloy in which Nb is dissolved into matrix by quenching, the relative photocurrent intensity of $1^{st}$ peak increased, which implies that dissolved Nb act as another electron transition source.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.320.2-320.2
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• 2004