Korean Journal of Materials Research ISSN:1225-0562(Print) 2287-7258(Online) 한국재료학회지

Zircon, having excellent thermal, chemical, and mechanical properties, is utilized in refractory materials, electronic materials, chemical machines, structural materials, etc. However, zircon generally shows thermal dissociation to zirconia(ZrO₂) and silica(SiO₂) around the sintering temperature of 1540 °C, and when zircon particles are small and impurities are present, thermal dissociation is known to occur at around 1100 °C. This reduces the mechanical properties of ZrSiO₄. In this research, the effect of adding SiO₂ and 3Y-TZP to ZrSiO₄ has been studied in order to suppress dissociation and improve the mechanical properties. Addition of SiO₂ suppressed the dissociation of ZrSiO₄ at lower temperatures. It also enabled optimum packing between the particles, resulting in a dense microstructure and good mechanical properties. When 3Y-TZP was added, recombination with the dissociated SiO₂ resulted in good mechanical properties by suppressing the generation of pores and the densification of the microstructure.