Hardness Behavior of Alumina-Zirconia Nanocomposites Synthesized by Gel Process

The alumina-zirconia composites are one of the relatively good and promising candidates for biomaterials application, due to biocompatibility and their mechanical properties that combines high flexural strength with a high toughness. The aim of the present work is to analyze the mechanical properties of these composites, where zirconia content was varied from 5 to 50 wt%. The citrate gel method, similar to the polymerized complex method, was used to synthesize these ceramics. Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and microhardness tests are used to characterize synthesized materials. The examined material exhibits the behaviour of indentation size effect. Modified proportional resistance model are used to analyze the load dependence of the microhardness. X-ray diffraction analysis was used to calculation of the grain size and dislocation density. It is found that hardness is decreased when the zirconia content increases with enlargement of grain size.