Mechanical behaviors of alumina ceramics doped with rare-earth oxides

The effects of three types of additives Y2O3, La2O3, and Sm2O3 on the sintering and mechanical behaviors of alumina ceramics were investigated. The bending strengths of alumina ceramics with Sm2O3 and Y2O3 additions were 455 and 439 MPa, respectively, higher than that with La2O3 addition. The fracture toughness of the ceramics with Sm2O3 and Y2O3 were also higher than that with La2O3 addition. The fracture mode of rare earth oxides doped alumina ceramics exhibited obvious transgranular fractures as well as intergranular fracture. The results of research show that the improvement of bending strength and fracture toughness of alumina ceramics with rare earth oxides was achieved by refining the grain size and strengthening the grain boundary.