Maintaining the mechanical strength of La-, Y-co-substituted zirconia porous ceramics through the superplastically foaming method

The superplastically foaming method was adopted to make closed-pore inclusive zirconia-based ceramics. Lanthanum oxide was added to monoclinic or tetragonal yttria-stabilised zirconia to reduce the thermal conductivity of the matrix. Sintering and superplastic deformation led to a solid solution and transformation to the cubic phase. The resulting superplastically foamed porous ceramics having a porosity of 45% had only 40% of the thermal conductivity of the fully densified ceramics having the same composition. This value was comparable to that of conventionally fabricated porous ceramics with the same composition and porosity. The superplastically foamed ceramics had 60%, while conventionally fabricated ceramics had only 20%, of the mechanical strength of the fully dense ceramics.