Effects of Conventional and Flash Sintering Methods on the Properties of Zro<sub>2</Sub>-sno<sub>2 </Sub>nanocomposites

Abstract

ZrO2-SnO2 nanocomposite was produced in nanofiber (NF) form in three different ratios by volume (%v/v)by electro-spinning technique. Microstructure and morphological characterization of NFs reveal the ternarysystem of ZrO2-SnO2-ZrSnO4. Also, when the composition ratio of NFs was changed, both the band gap andthe electrical (flash) sintering (ES or FS) event affected the temperature and sinter time variation. FSexperiments were used at 3.77mA/mm2 current cutoff under thermal (844-878 degrees C) and electric field(420V/mm). Highly dense nanocomposites were obtained in less than 80 seconds with a maximum powerabsorption of 1.58W/mm3. Thanks to the low sintering temperature and time, the nanostructured surfacemorphology of the nanocomposites was obtained. In addition to the FS process, ZrO2-SnO2-ZrSnO4 CNFs were sintered for 1 hour at 1200 degrees C using the conventional sintering (GS) method. This study investigatedthe effects of the difference in sintering techniques on the sintering temperature and time, as well as onproperties such as density and hardness. As the amount of Sn (%v/v) in the composition increases, the density increases, but the hardness value decreases. It has been proven that in ZrO2-SnO2-ZrSnO4 CNFs, denser and harder compositions are obtained with FS treatment compared to GS. When all these results are evaluated, it is believed that the synthesized nanocomposites can be used as a valid candidate in the health system such as dental implants due to their antimicrobial effect and non-toxicity in the model organism