Spherical engineering Ca-TZP ceramics made from baddeleyite: fabrication, structure and mechanical properties

The spherification method was adapted to baddeleyite-based ceramics fabrication. Novel calcia stabilized tetragonal zirconia (Ca-TZP) ceramics with sufficiently high values of hardness (11.73 ± 0.12 GPa), fracture toughness (9.15 ± 0.24 MPa m0.5) and Young's modulus (217 ± 14 GPa) was produced. Dependences of the material microstructure, its phase composition and mechanical properties on sintering temperature and the doping agent concentration were investigated. Fabricated spherical Ca-TZP ceramics made from baddeleyite may be considered as perspective engineering ceramics, for example, for milling processes as an alternative to grinding media made of chemically precipitated zirconia.