Title: Synthesis and investigation of Al₂O₃/SiO₂/ZrO₂ powders for biological and medical application

Authors: Wei Wang; Zhiwei Xu; Yongxian Liu; Jerry Ying Hsi Fuh

Addresses: School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, China ' School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, China ' School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, China ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS), 117576, Singapore

Abstract: This research focused on the synthesis and investigation of the thermal properties and microstructure and phase structures of the Al₂O₃/SiO₂/ZrO₂ system applied in the dental field. The ball-milling duration influence on the transformation from the alumina and silica into the mullite is also studied. Detailed investigations of the different proportions of materials on the preparation and microstructural phases of ternary eutectic were presented. Furthermore, the crystallisation process was investigated by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results indicate that sintering microstructure of the ternary eutectic composite is greatly influenced by the materials proportions. The synthetically thermal analysis shows that the eutectic temperature of ternary Al₂O₃/SiO₂/ZrO₂ composite is 1,040°C, is well matching the phase diagram of Al₂O₃/SiO₂/ZrO₂. The formation of the mullite phase can be determined due to the ball-milling time 6h that could be interesting laser sintering biological and medical materials.

Keywords: composites; biological materials; medical materials; selective laser sintering; SLS; thermal properties; microstructure; phase structures; dental implants; dental materials; ball milling; alumina; silica; mullite; zirconia.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMPT.2012.051350

International Journal of Materials and Product Technology, 2012 Vol.45 No.1/2/3/4, pp.163 - 171

Published online: 18 Sep 2014 *

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