The influence of Fe2O3 additions on the microstructure, mechanical properties and translucence of zirconia with 3 mol-% or 5 mol-% Y2O3 was evaluated. Samples were pressed with different thickness and sintered at 1475, 1500, 1550 and 1600°C for 2 h. Density, phases, microstructure, roughness, strength and translucency were analyzed. All samples showed densification greater than 99%. After sintering at 1600°C, the phase analysis revealed only tetragonal ZrO2 in samples with 3% Y2O3, while in samples with 5% Y2O3 the cubic ZrO2 phase was identified. Significant increase in the grain size was noted, when increasing the Y2O3 content from 3% to 5% from 0.8 µm to 2.3 µm for sintered samples at 1600°C. The strength was affected with Y2O3 content and no relevant influence of the Fe2O3 on density, microstructure or mechanical properties. Visible reflectance spectroscopy analyses, related to the CIELab scale, indicate variation in the contrast ratio as function of thickness of samples and coloring agent Fe2O3 content.

To solve chipping of veneer porcelain in zirconia dental prosthesis it has been studied different cooling rates in firing schedules to control residual stresses generated by differences in thermal properties between the ceramics. However, cooling rates may affect the porcelain, irrespectively of interaction with zirconia. This study analyzed the effect of cooling rate on the three-point flexural strength (FS), residual stress, Vickers hardness (VH) and V-notch fracture toughness (SEVNB) on a feldspathic porcelain (Vita VM9) indicated for covering zirconia. Bar-shaped specimens were sintered according manufacturer's schedule firing and cooled at different rates (slow, normal or fast). Specimens were tested for FS (n=30), VH (n=15) and SEVNB tests (n=15). Weibull analysis were performed from FS values to measure reliability and probability of failure (PF). One-way ANOVA was significant for VH (p<0.001), and Tukey's test showed that slow cooling led to higher values. There was no significant difference for FS (p=0.654) and SEVNB (p=0.734). Fast cooling led to the lowest PF, but cooling rate factor was not significant for Weibull modulus. All cooling group showed residual tensile stress (MPa): Slow = 34.81; Normal = 27.04; Fast = 18,98. It was concluded that cooling rate produce minor changes in the porcelain properties.

AbstractThis work aims to evaluate the melting temperature and wetting behavior of AlN/Re2O3 (Re = Dy, Yb) mixtures when in contact with SiC substrates at high temperatures, in order to define whether these compounds can be further used to induce a more effective liquid phase sintering of SiC-based products. The prepared samples were placed on SiC plates and thermally treated up to 1900 °C under argon. The melting point and spreading evolution of different compositions of AlN/Re2O3 on SiC were determined by analyzing images captured as a function of the heating temperature. The contact angle and melting point were measured using the ImageJ software and according to DIN 51730, respectively. Based on the obtained wetting curves, all evaluated conditions resulted in the decrease of the contact angle values with temperature. The mixtures presenting improved wetting (θ ~ 1° and 3°) on SiC plates were the ones above the selected eutectic point.

Silicon carbide (SiC) ceramics show excellent performance at high temperatures. Due to the high covalence of Si-C bonds, these ceramics are produced successfully only via liquid phase sintering (LPS). In this work, SiC ceramics were sintered via LPS using eutectic mixtures of Al2O3+Y2O3, which served as a standard for comparison, Al2O3+Yb2O3 and Al2O3+Dy2O3. The oxides mixtures were used to form liquid phase during the SiC sintering. Mixtures of SiC and additives were ground, pressed at 300 MPa and sintered at 1950ºC for 2 hours. All mixtures showed similar hardness, fracture toughness and flexural strength slightly different. Also the microstructure and crystalline phase were similar, showing that the ytterbium's and dysprosium's oxides can be also used as additive as well the most used oxide, yttrium oxide.

The sugarcane cultivar RB937570 is early to medium maturing. It should be grown preferably on medium texture soils with medium to high fertility. In central-southeastern Brazil, RB937570 should be harvested between May and August. It is tolerant to the major economically relevant crop diseases, has a good shoot development after mechanical harvesting and high sucrose yields.

The objective of this work was to compare the fracture energy of mortar and concretes produced with crushed rock and pebble aggregates using zero, 10, 20, 30 and 40% of aggregates mixed with standard mortar and applying the wedge splitting method to achieve stable crack propagation. The samples were cast in a special mold and cured for 28 days, after which they were subjected to crack propagation tests by the wedge splitting method to determine the fracture energies of the mortar and concrete. The concretes showed higher fracture energy than the mortar, and the concretes containing crushed rock showed higher resistance to crack propagation than all the compositions containing pebbles. The fracture energy varied from 38 to 55 J.m-2. A comparison of the number of aggregates that separated from the two concrete matrices with the highest fracture energies indicated that the concrete containing pebbles crumbled more easily and was therefore less resistant to crack propagation.

Many methods are currently used to measure the fracture toughness of ceramic materials. Methods based on crack-length measurements of cracks introduced into the sample surface by the Vicker's indentor have the advantage that they are easy to use, but are very unreliable due to subcritical crack growth and the difficulty in determining the exact length of the cracks. Furthermore, depending on the crack shape there are many equations to calculate K Ic. Other methods like the Chevron Notch or Single Edge Pre-cracked Beam (SEPB) are often difficult to execute or expensive. The simple and inexpensive Single-Edge-V-Notched Beam (SEVNB) on the other hand gives reliable values of fracture toughness of ceramic materials. In this method a saw cut is tapered to a sharp V-notch using a razor blade sprinkled with diamond paste. Thus, it is possible to introduce a sharp crack with a notch width of less than 20 micrometers, necessary to conduct valid tests. In this investigation, fracture toughness measurements on LPS-SiC materials carried out by the indentation technique and the SEVNB method have been compared.

A comparative study was made of Si3N4 sintered with two types of additives, namely, Y2O3/SiO2 and R2O3(ss)/SiO2, R2O3(ss) being a rare earth metal oxide in solid solution. The processing conditions for both types of Si3N4 were 14 vol% of additives and a sintering temperature of 1800 ºC for 30, 60 and 240 min. To compare the efficiency of the additives in the material's sintering process, the density, flexural strength, fracture toughness and hardness were measured and the phase composition and microstructure determined. The results indicated that R2O3(ss)/SiO2 as a sintering aid improved the material's high temperature strength and slowed down grain growth when compared with the Y2O3/SiO2 additive.

In this work, the influence of the additive system on the liquid phase sintering of silicon carbide has been investigated. The additives employed were mixtures of AlN/Y2O3, Al2O3/Y2O3 and SiO2/Y2O3. The total additive content was fixed at 20 vol.-%, maintaining the Y2O3 content in each additive system at 35 vol.-%. Cold isostatically pressed samples were sintered at 1900, 2000 and 2100 °C under Ar atmosphere during 30 min. The most promising results have been obtained by samples with AlN/Y2O3 additions sintered at 2000 °C, exhibiting the smallest weight loss of about 6% and the highest flexural strengths of about 433 MPa. Samples with Al2O3/Y2O3 and SiO2/Y2O3 additions exhibited high weight loss, because of reactions of Al2O3 and SiO2 with the SiC matrix, forming gaseous species such as Al2O, SiO and CO, resulting in depletion of the liquid phase, and, consequently, in inferior final densities and mechanical properties. Concerning the SiO2/Y2O3 additive system, the reactions seem to be completed already at temperatures below 1900 °C, turning this additive mixture unsuitable. The microstructural analysis indicated only the presence of the <FONT FACE="Symbol">b</FONT>-SiC phase for all samples; no phase transformation of the <FONT FACE="Symbol">b</FONT>-SiC into <FONT FACE="Symbol">a</FONT>-SiC has been observed.