LAUSR

Abstract Through this work, we show the efficacy of a novel processing step (during co-precipitation synthesis) that ensured a ‘burst nucleation’ scenario and yielded crucial benefits for a stabilized zirconia (Ce 0.2 Zr 0.8 O 2 ) system. In addition to the high surface area and near-spherical morphology of the Ce 0.2 Zr 0.8 O 2 nanoparticles, high temperature (≥1350 °C) tetragonal phase stability was noted for both Ce 0.2 Zr 0.8 O 2 powders and ceramics. Ce 0.2 Zr 0.8 O 2 powders produced near-theoretical density (∼97%) ceramic with equiaxed grain size (0.17 ± 0.05 μm) via conventional sintering at 1250 °C. Significant improvement was noted for the hardness values (∼14.5 GPa) for the Ce 0.2 Zr 0.8 O 2 ceramic compared to all previously published literature. Tetragonal→monoclinic transformation (for synthesis plan without burst nucleation approach) was correlated to anisotropic and irregular particle shapes, wide dispersion in particle sizes that induced internal stress in ZrO 2 matrix.