Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T14:48:32.809Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Grain growth resistant nanocrystalline zirconia by targeting zero grain boundary energies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Sanchita Dey
Affiliation:
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science & NEAT ORU, University of California - Davis, Davis, California 95616, USA
Chi-Hsiu Chang
Affiliation:
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science & NEAT ORU, University of California - Davis, Davis, California 95616, USA
Mingming Gong
Affiliation:
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science & NEAT ORU, University of California - Davis, Davis, California, USA; and State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710072, People's Republic of China
Feng Liu
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710072, People's Republic of China
Ricardo H.R. Castro*
Affiliation:
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science & NEAT ORU, University of California - Davis, Davis, California, USA
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Nanocrystalline ceramics offer interesting and useful physical properties attributed to their inherent large volume fraction of grain boundaries. At the same time, these materials are highly unstable, being subjected to severe coarsening when exposed at moderate to high temperatures, limiting operating temperatures and disabling processing conditions. In this work, we designed highly stable nanocrystalline yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) by targeting a decrease of average grain boundary (GB) energy, affecting both driving force for growth and mobility of the boundaries. The design was based on fundamental equations governing thermodynamics of nanocrystals, and enabled the selection of lanthanum as an effective dopant which segregates to grain boundaries and lowers the average energy of YSZ boundaries to half. While this would be already responsible for significant coarsening reduction, we further experimentally demonstrate that the GB energy decreases continuously during grain growth caused by the enrichment of boundaries with dopant, enhancing further the stability of the boundaries. The designed composition showed impressive resistance to grain growth at 1100 °C as compared to the undoped YSZ and opens the perspective for similar design in other ceramics.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Petch, N.J.: The cleavage strength of polycrystals. J. Iron Steel Inst. 174, 25 (1953).Google Scholar
Wang, C.M., Cho, J., Chan, H.M., Harmer, M.P., and Rickman, J.M.: Influence of dopant concentration on creep properties of Nd2O3-doped alumina. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 84, 1010 (2001).Google Scholar
Wollmershauser, J.A., Feigelson, B.N., Gorzkowski, E.P., Elis, C.T., Goswami, R., Qadri, S.B., Tischler, J.G., Kub, F.J., and Everett, R.K.: An extended hardness limit in bulk nanoceramics. Acta Mater. 69, 9 (2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyers, M.A., Mishra, A., and Benson, D.J.: Mechanical properties of nanocrystalline materials. Prog. Mater. Sci. 51, 427 (2006).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ehre, D. and Chaim, R.: Abnormal Hall–Petch behavior in nanocrystalline MgO ceramic. J. Mater. Sci. 43, 6139 (2008).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maglia, F., Tredici, I.G., and Anselmi-Tamburini, U.: Densification and properties of bulk nanocrystalline functional ceramics with grain size below 50 nm. J. Eur. Ceram. Soc. 33, 1045 (2013).Google Scholar
Burke, J.: Some factors affecting the rate of grain growth in metals. AIME Trans. 180, 73 (1949).Google Scholar
Liu, F. and Kirchheim, R.: Nano-scale grain growth inhibited by reducing GB energy through solute segregation. J. Crystal Growth 264, 385 (2004).Google Scholar
Gong, M. and Liu, F.: Nano-scaled grain growth. In Mechanism of Conventional Nanodensification and Field Assisted Processes, Castro, R.H.R. and van Benthem, K. eds.; Springer-Verlag: Germany, 2013; pp. 3555.Google Scholar
Gottstein, G. and Shvindlerman, L.S.: Grain Boundary Migration in Metals: Thermodynamics, Kinetics, Applications (CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 1999); pp. 254311.Google Scholar
Borisov, V.T., Golikov, V.M., and Shcherbedinskii, G.V.: The relationship between diffusion coefficients and grain-boundary energy. Fiz. Met. Metalloved. 885, 17 (1964).Google Scholar
Chen, Z., Liu, F., Yang, X.Q., and Shen, C.J.: A thermokinetic description of nanoscale grain growth: Analysis of the activation energy effect. Acta Mater. 60, 4833 (2012).Google Scholar
Rahaman, M.N.: Sintering of Ceramics (CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 2007); pp. 140143.Google Scholar
Chen, P.L. and Chen, I.W.: Grain boundary mobility in Y2O3: Defect mechanism and dopant effects. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 79, 1801 (1996).Google Scholar
Chen, P.L. and Chen, I.W.: Grain growth in CeO2: Dopant effects, defect mechanism, and solute drag. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 79, 1793 (1996).Google Scholar
Castro, R.H.R.: On the thermodynamic stability of nanocrystalline ceramics. Mater. Lett. 96, 45 (2013).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weissmüller, J.: Alloy effects in nanostructures. Nanostruct. Mater. 3, 261 (1993).Google Scholar
Cahn, R.: Nanostability. Mater. Today 4, 13 (2008).Google Scholar
Gouvea, D., Pereira, G.J., Gengembre, L., Steil, M.C., Roussel, P., Rubbens, A., Hidalgo, P., and Castro, R.H.R.: Quantification of MgO surface excess on the SnO2 nanoparticles and relationship with nanostability and growth. Appl. Surf. Sci. 257, 4219 (2011).Google Scholar
Chookajorn, T., Murdoch, J.A., and Schuh, C.A.: Design of stable nanocrystalline alloys. Science 337, 951 (2012).Google Scholar
Millett, P.C., Selvam, R.P., and Saxena, A.: Stabilizing nanocrystalline materials with dopants. Acta Mater. 55, 2329 (2007).Google Scholar
Millett, P.C., Selvam, R.P., and Saxena, A.: Molecular dynamics simulation of grain size stabilization in nanocrystalline materials by addition of dopants. Acta Mater. 54, 297 (2006).Google Scholar
Millett, P.C., Selvam, R.P., Bansal, S., and Saxena, A.: Atomistic simulation of grain boundary energetics—Effects of dopants. Acta Mater. 53, 3671 (2005).Google Scholar
Kirchheim, R.: Grain coarsening inhibited by solute segregation. Acta Mater. 50, 413 (2002).Google Scholar
Liu, F. and Kirchheim, R.: Grain boundary saturation and grain growth. Scr. Mater. 51, 521 (2004).Google Scholar
Trelewicz, J.R. and Schuh, C.: Grain boundary segregation and thermodynamically stable binary nanocrystalline alloys. Phys. Rev. B. 79, 094112 (2009).Google Scholar
Gong, M.M., Liu, F., and Zhang, K.: Thermokinetic description of nanoscale grain growth: Analysis of initial grain boundary excess amount. Scr. Mater. 63, 898 (2010).Google Scholar
Jain, J., Rao, G., Kishore, N., and Jain, H.: Zirconia-based solid state electrolyte sensor. Res. Ind. 35, 23 (1990).Google Scholar
Maskell, W.C.: Progress in the development of zirconia gas sensors. Solid State Ionics 134, 43 (2000).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lei, Y., Ito, Y., Browning, N.D., and Mazanec, T.J.: Segregation effects at grain boundaries in fluorite-strctured ceramics. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 85, 2359 (2002).Google Scholar
Dickey, E.C., Fan, X., and Pennycook, S.J.: Structure and chemistry of yttria-stabilized cubic-zirconia symmetric tilt grain boundaries. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 84, 1361 (2001).Google Scholar
Matsui, K., Ohmichi, N., Ohgai, M., Yoshida, H., and Ikuhara, Y.: Effect of alumina-doping on grain boundary segregation-induced phase transformation in yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystal. J. Mater. Res. 21, 2278 (2006).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Backhaus-Ricoult, M., Badding, M., and Thibault, Y.: Grain boundary segregation and conductivity in yttria-stabilized zirconia. In Advances in Electronic and Electrochemical Ceramics, Vol. 179, Dogan, F. and Kumta, P., eds.; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: Danvers, MA, 2006; pp. 219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hwang, S.L. and Chen, I.W.: Grain size control of tetragonal zirconia polycrystals using the space charge concept. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 73, 3269 (1990).Google Scholar
Kang, S-K.L.: Sintering Densification, Grain Growth and Microstructure, 1st ed. (Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, Burlington, MA, USA, 2005); pp. 171191.Google Scholar
Lee, W., Han, J.W., Chen, Y., Cai, Z., and Yildiz, B.: Cation size mismatch and charge interactions drive dopant segregation at the surfaces of manganite perovskites. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 135, 7909 (2013).Google Scholar
Munir, Z.A., Quach, D., and Ohyanagi, M.: Electric current activation of sintering: A review of the pulsed electric current sintering process. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 94, 1 (2011).Google Scholar
Quach, D.V., Zavaliangos, A., and Anselmi-Tambtirini, U., and Groza, J.R.: Fundamentals and applications of field/current assisted sintering. In Sintering of Advanced Materials, Fang, Z. ed.; Woodhead Publishing Ltd.: USA, 2010; pp 249274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rufner, J., Anderson, D., van Benthem, K., and Castro, R.H.R.: Synthesis and sintering behavior of ultrafine (< 10 nm) magnesium aluminate spinel nanoparticles. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 96, 2077 (2013).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quach, D.V. and Castro, R.H.R.: Direct measurement of GB enthalpy of cubic yttria-stabilized zirconia by differential scanning calorimetry. J. Appl. Phys. 112, 083527 (2012).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wu, L., Dey, S., Gong, M., Liu, F., and Castro, R.H.R.: Surface segregation on manganese doped ceria nanoparticles and relationship with nanostability. J. Phys. Chem. C 118, 30187 (2014).Google Scholar
Kissinger, H.K.: Reaction kinetics in differential thermal analysis. Anal. Chem. 29, 1702 (1957).Google Scholar
Chen, L.C. and Spaepen, F.: Analysis of calorimetric measurements of grain growth. J. Appl. Phys. 69, 679 (1991).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, J., Fang, Q., and Liu, Y.: Void formation of nanocrystalline materials at the triple junction of grain boundaries. Mater. Res. Express 1, 015013 (2014).Google Scholar
Ma, Y. and Langdon, T.G.: An examination of the implications of void growth in submicrometer and nanocrystalline structures. Mater. Sci. Eng., A 168, 225 (1993).Google Scholar
Costa, G.C.C., Ushakov, S.V., Castro, R.H.R., Navrotsky, A., and Muccillo, R.: Calorimetric measurement of surface and interface enthalpies of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ). Chem. Mater. 22, 2937 (2010).Google Scholar
Egerton, R.F.: Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy in the Electron Microscope, 2nd ed. (Plenum Press, New York, 1996); pp. 231288.Google Scholar
McLean, D.: Grain Boundaries in Metals (Clarendon Press, 1957); p. 44.Google Scholar
Chen, Z., Liu, F., Yang, X.Q., Shen, C.J., and Zhao, W.M.: A thermokinetic description of nano-scale grain growth under dynamic grain boundary segregation condition. J. Alloys Compd. 608, 338 (2014).Google Scholar
Rohrer, G.S.: Measuring and interpreting the structure of grain-boundary networks. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 94, 633 (2011).Google Scholar
Taimatsul, H., Wada, K., Kaneko, H., and Yamamura, H.: Mechanism of reaction between lanthanum manganite and yttria-stabilized zirconia. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 75, 401 (1992).Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Dey supplementary material

Dey supplementary material 1

Download Dey supplementary material(File)
File 2 MB