Fabrication of coloured zirconia ceramics by infiltrating water debound injection moulded green body

Abstract

Abstract

The authors developed a new technique combining ceramic injection moulding and liquid precursor infiltration, presenting a new strategy for fabrication of coloured zirconia ceramics. The authors’ strategy includes ceramic injection moulding 3Y‐TZP powder using a water debinding binder system, debinding moulded parts in water and drying, immersing debound parts in solutions containing different colouring ions and then sintering and creating coloured zirconia ceramics. The fabricated coloured ceramic bars exhibit a core shell structure, and the thickness of the coloured shell can be tailored by adjusting immersion time and temperature. Using solutions containing different colouring ions, ceramic bars with various colours can be prepared.

Keywords:

• Coloured zirconia ceramics
• Ceramic injection moulding
• Infiltration
• Surface modification
• Green body

The work was financially supported by the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under the project no. 50972072 and the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Programme) under the project no. 2007AA03Z522.