Fabrication of dense β-calcium orthophosphate with submicrometer-sized grains and its high-temperature superplastic deformation

High-density β-calcium orthophosphate (β-Ca3(PO4)2, also called β-tricalcium phosphate: β-TCP) ceramics with submicrometer-sized grains were fabricated using a pulse-current pressure firing route. The maximum relative density of the β-TCP compacts was 98.7% at 1050 °C and this was accompanied by a translucent appearance. The mean grain size of the β-TCP compacts increased slightly with temperature to reach 0.78 μm at 1000 °C. However, upon further increasing the firing temperature to 1050 °C the mean grain size increased significantly to 1.6 μm. The extent of plastic deformation during tensile testing was examined at temperatures between 900 and 1100 °C using a strain rate in the range 9.26 × 10−5 to 4.44 × 10−4 s−1. The maximum tensile strain achieved was 145% for a test temperature of 1000 °C and strain rate of 1.48 × 10−4 s−1 and this was attributed to the relatively high density and small grain size.