Mechanically induced zone darkening of alumina/ceria-stabilized zirconia composites

Alumina/ceria-stabilized zirconia bars tested in four-point bending exhibited deformation bands on the tensile side due to localized tetragonal-to-monoclinic transformation. These bands became increasingly darker and were fully visible some weeks after the bending experiment. XPS spectra revealed that the darker regions are characterized by a higher concentration of cerium in the +3 oxidation state, as opposed to other undeformed regions, in which +4 is the predominant oxidation state. A numerical calculation established that residual stresses exist in the deformation bands. It is suggested that these stresses facilitate the reduction of cerium with the gradient in stress motivating the diffusion of oxygen vacancies