Conventional sintering techniques of yttria‐tetragonal zirconia polycrystals (Y‐TZP) ceramics have presented limitations regarding the sintering time and temperature, increasing the cost of the final dental and biomedical products. Herein, microwave sintering comes to be an interesting alternative by providing fast heating, high densification, and grain‐size control. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of microwave sintering of Y‐TZP dental ceramics prepared from a pre‐sintered commercial block and produced from powders synthesized in a laboratorial scale by the precipitation route. The synthetized and commercial discs were submitted to microwave sintering at 1450°C and 1350°C for 15, 30, and 60 minutes. Densification, fracture toughness, grain size, and crystalline phase quantification of the sintered groups were evaluated. Both synthetized and commercial groups sintered at 1450°C for 15 and 30 minutes showed the higher densification results (98% TD). XRD quantitative phase analysis indicates that samples present 89% tetragonal and 11% cubic phases, except for the group prepared from coprecipitated powders sintered at 1450°C for 30 minutes, that presented 79% and 21% of tetragonal and cubic phases. The microwave sintering at 1450°C allows hardness and fracture toughness values comparable to conventional sintering.

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Conventional sintering techniques of yttria-tetragonal zirconia polycrystals (Y-TZP) ceramics have presented limitations regarding the sintering time and temperature, increasing the cost of the final dental and biomedical products. Herein, microwave sintering comes to be an interesting alternative by providing fast heating, high densification and grain size control, reducing the overall processing time to produce the desired ceramic material. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of microwave sintering of a pre-sintered Y-TZP dental ceramics (V-M and LP-M groups) and other prepared from powders synthesized in a laboratorial scale by the precipitation route (CP-M group). Values of densification, fracture toughness, grain size, translucency and crystalline phases quantification of aged and non-aged sintered samples were reported. The groups V-M and CP-M were sintered at 1450°C and 1350°C for 15 and 30 minutes and the group LP-M was sintered at 1450°C at the same times. The sintered samples at 1450°C for 15 and 30 minutes presented the highest density values (around 98% related to theoretical density). The average grain size of highest density samples varied between 309 a 355 nm. The translucency (ΔE) results were similar to the reported literature. The X-ray diffraction crystalline phase quantification analysis indicated that the majority of the non-aged samples were formed by 89% tetragonal phase and 11% cubic phase. The hydrothermal tests allowed to verify the phase degradation behavior under wet environment of microwave sintered samples, indicating that in the case of commercial ceramics, this technique as an viable alternative for production of better degradation resistance Y-TZP ceramics.