Jm. Heintz et al., NEW LOW THERMAL-EXPANSION CERAMICS - SINTERING AND THERMAL-BEHAVIOR OF LN(1 3)ZR(2)(PO4)(3)-BASED COMPOSITES/, Journal of alloys and compounds, 250(1-2), 1997, pp. 515-519
Materials with the general formula MxZr2(PO4)(3) are known to possess
low coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE). The present work investig
ates the thermal properties of new composite materials issued from the
decomposition at high temperature of Ln(1/3)Zr(2)(PO4)(3) (Ln=La, Gd)
. The decomposition process was studied and showed that the resulting
powder was a LnPO(4), Zr2P2O9 and ZrO2 mixture. Composite materials ma
de of that mixture were sintered and characterized. The effect of sint
ering aids such as ZnO was considered. Final densities of the composit
es were about 90% of theoretical density and these materials presented
low CTE in the 10(-6)degrees C-1 range.