Rheological properties of aqueous suspensions (48 vol%) of zircon-alumina mixtures containing different amounts of polyelectrolyte as dispersant were studied. Slip casting in a plaster mold and pressure filtration at 8 MPa experiments were performed to correlate the rheological properties of the suspensions with the relative density of green casts. Flow curves fitted satisfactorily to the Casson model. The Casson viscosity values remained nearly constant whereas Casson yield stress parameter decreased to a minimum and then increased with increasing the amount of dispersant added. The influence of particle size distribution (PSD) of the powder mixtures on Casson yield stress parameter and on the minimum viscosity was also examined. Green densities increased as yield stress Casson parameter decreased. The mixture of alumina and zircon as fine and coarse powders produced bimodal PSD which maximized the green density of the compacts. Some weakly flocculated suspensions having low apparent viscosity and small yield stress produced casts with relatively high densification. This is attributed to a slight higher viscosity at low shear rates of these suspensions in which settling of particles and /or segregation of components can not occur.

Zirconium compounds are of great interest for ceramic application due to their excellent thermal and mechanical properties. Zirconium phases of the system Zr-O-C-N were obtained using carbonitriding reactions of zircon mineral (ZrO2.SiO2), under different reaction conditions. The reaction products were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) using the Rietveld method. Silicon was employed as internal standard. Zirconium compounds formed were m-ZrO2 (monoclinic), beta"-zirconium oxynitride and a cubic Zr(C,N,O) phase whose lattice parameter a o depends on the composition. The crystallite sizes of the three zirconium phases were determined also by XRD. The minority phases present are the ones of the Si-O-N-C system. The reaction conditions employed allows to obtain reaction products with low or without silicon content.