Synthesis and investigation of Al2O3/SiO 2/ZrO2 powders for biological and medical application

Abstract

This research focused on the synthesis and investigation of the thermal properties and microstructure and phase structures of the Al2O 3/SiO2/ZrO2 system applied in the dental field. The ball-milling duration influence on the transformation from the alumina and silica into the mullite is also studied. Detailed investigations of the different proportions of materials on the preparation and microstructural phases of ternary eutectic were presented. Furthermore, the crystallisation process was investigated by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results indicate that sintering microstructure of the ternary eutectic composite is greatly influenced by the materials proportions. The synthetically thermal analysis shows that the eutectic temperature of ternary Al2O3/SiO2/ZrO2 composite is 1,040°C, is well matching the phase diagram of Al2O 3/SiO2/ZrO2. The formation of the mullite phase can be determined due to the ball-milling time 6h that could be interesting laser sintering biological and medical materials. © 2012 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.