Effect of grinding and subsequent thermal annealing on phase composition of subsurface layers of zirconia ceramics

Abstract The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of surface grinding and thermal annealing on phase composition of the subsurface layers of zirconia ceramics sintered from ultradisperse plasma-chemical powders ZrO 2 – 3 mol% Y 2 O 3 . The phase composition was determined using X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The obtained results indicated that the phase composition of the sintered zirconia ceramics does not change throughout the volume and consists of tetragonal zirconia. The study showed that surface grinding leads to the formation of a monoclinic (m) phase in the subsurface layers of ceramics, and the monoclinic phase formed after grinding undergo a reverse phase transition to the tetragonal (t) modification during subsequent short-term thermal annealing at T = 1000 °C. Recovery by thermal annealing is recommended as a mandatory procedure for XRD analysis of zirconia ceramics subjected to surface grinding.