Fundamentals of transformation toughening zirconia

The resurgent interest in ceramics as structural and engineering materials has been brought about by the dramatic improvement in their thermomechanical properties. These improvements have been made possible by a better understanding of the processing variables. A leader in this resurgence has been the emergence of a class of materials now known as transformation toughening ceramics. This paper deals with the fundamental principles of zirconia based transformation toughening materials (TTZ). By judicious selection of chemical composition and thermal history these ceramics can be fabricated to become amongst the strongest and toughest engineering ceramics available to-day. The microstructures of TTZ can be tailored so that they become suitable for a variety of industrial and engineering applications. 19 refs., 15 figs