THE ROLE OF ANNEALING TEMPERATURE ON STRUCTURAL CHANGES IN ZrO₂ CERAMICS

During the comprehensive analysis of the structural parameters of the studied mechanically activated ZrO₂ ceramics, the optimal temperature range for heat treatment was established, ensuring maximum structural homogeneity, a high degree of structural ordering and a minimum concentration of residual mechanical stresses. An analysis of structural changes in ceramics, carried out using X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy methods, made it possible to establish that an increase in annealing temperature leads to partial relaxation of mechanically induced stresses and redistribution of oxygen vacancies. Moreover, in the entire range of annealing temperatures studied, no initialization of phase polymorphic transformation processes, characteristic of zirconium dioxide in the case of intense mechanical pressures or the presence of a large number of oxygen vacancies, is observed. Analysis of the data obtained showed that at annealing temperatures of 1000 – 1100 °C, the structure is dominated by complex defects associated with the presence of deformation residual stresses and areas of strong disorder that arose under mechanical impact. With an increase in the annealing temperature to 1200 – 1300 °C, an equally probable distribution of defects in the structure is observed, while at temperatures above 1400°C, there is a dominance of F+ centers and VO – vacancies, the growth in the concentration of which is associated with an increase in structural ordering due to partial relaxation of defects and the formation of oxygen vacancies.

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