Ceramic Composites of 3Y-TZP Doped with CuO: Processing, Microstructure and Tribology

The work described in this thesis is about processing, microstructure and tribology of CuO doped 3Y-TZP (3 mol% yttria stabilised tetragonal zirconia polycrystals) composite ceramics. This group of materials has shown attractive properties such as superplastic behaviour at elevated temperature and a low friction coefficient under dry sliding conditions. This thesis can be divided in two parts. The first part (chapter 2-7) describes investigations on the fabrication process, including powder preparation, compaction and sintering, and the relation between processing and microstructure. Major efforts were paid on fabrication of nanostructured composite ceramic in this part. The second part (chapter 8-9) deals with the tribological properties of the coarse-grained CuO doped 3Y-TZP composite ceramics under dry sliding conditions.