Lattice and grain boundary diffusion of cations in tetragonal zirconia

Zirconia is a widely used oxide ceramic in various high performance applications due to its attractive mechanical, electrical and thermal properties. In particular, the material 3 mol% yttria stabilized tetragonal zirconia (3YTZ) has been shown to undergo superplastic deformation [1]. One crucial step in the understanding of processes like superplasticity involves the knowledge of appropriate cation lattice and grain boundary diffusion coefficients. However, there are no diffusion data available on 3YTZ. The present study was carried out with the objective of obtaining lattice and grain boundary cation diffusivities of Y and Zr in high purity 3YTZ, using stable tracers and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) for analyzing the resulting depth profiles.