THE EFFECT OF APPLIED STRESS ON DENSIFICATION OF NANOSTRUCTURED ZIRCONIA DURING SINTER-FORGING

Nanoparticles Of ZrO2 (n-ZrO2) synthesized by the inert gas condensati on technique were consolidated by sinter-forging, which is a pressure- assisted sintering process. It was found that there is a threshold str ess below which there is only a small contribution to densification by the applied pressure. The value of the threshold stress depends on gr ain size and the effect is explained on the basis of driving forces fo r sintering. The grain size in the fully dense n-ZrO2 samples was 45 n m.