Tetragonal zirconia nanopowders (3Y-TZP NPs)
stabilized
by 3 mol % Y2O3 were synthesized by a novel
sol–gel–flux method. The effects of calcination temperature,
Y2O3 content, and molten salt system (NaCl +
KCl binary system and NaCl unary system) on the phase composition
and morphology of nanopowders (NPs) were investigated. Meanwhile,
the sintering properties of the prepared 3Y-TZP NPs were studied.
The 3Y-TZP NPs and sintered ceramics were characterized by thermogravimetry-differential
scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy,
scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy
(TEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis, and X-ray
fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy. The results show that the optimum
calcination temperature for obtaining dispersed ZrO2 NPs
is reduced from 800 to 660 °C when the NaCl unary system is substituted
by the NaCl + KCl binary system. 3Y-TZP NPs with a single tetragonal
phase are obtained in the NaCl + KCl binary system when Y2O3 content in the raw material is 5 mol %. The average
particle size of the obtained ZrO2 NPs is reduced from
47.25 nm in the unary system to 26.18 nm in the binary system because
of the lower calcining temperature. Furthermore, the 3Y-TZP NPs obtained
in the binary system have narrower particle size distribution and
better sintering performance than ZrO2 NPs obtained in
the unary system. After sintering for 4 h at 1200 °C, the former
generated 3Y-TZP ceramics with higher density and finer grain size.
This work produced narrow-distributed well-dispersed 3Y-TZP NPs with
quasi-spherical morphology, which are good candidates for the applications,
including oxygen sensors and thermal barrier coatings.