Effect of sintering additives and Rare Earth Elements on Mechanical and Optical properties Y2-x-y NdxEryO3 ceramics.
TRIPATHI H. 1, KUMAR S. 1, SHARMA J. 1
1 Department of Metallurgical & Materials Engineering Punjab Engineering College (Deemed to be University) , Chandigarh, India
In recent years, oxide materials such as yttrium oxide (Y2O3) have been examined as very promising scintillation because of their high density, strong chemical stability, optical precision, and ability to easily integrate luminous rare-earth (RE) ions. The addition of triplicate RE ions in yttrium oxide (Y2O3) modifies uniform spherical particles into a laminar and flake-like structure. As Y2O3 is stable at high temperatures its sintering becomes strenuous, therefore the use of sintering additives like La2O3 and ZrO2 becomes obvious. The present research article elaborates on the Mechanical, Optical, and electrical properties of Y2-x-yNdxEryO3 ceramics where (x=0.5 and y=0.5 to 1.5 at.%). This ceramic system was characterized for purity through X-ray diffraction (XRD) which showed the presence of cubic phases, Morphology was studied by using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) which revealed grain size of 2-3 μm, thermal analysis and thermogravimetry (DSC/TGA) showed no phase change above 700°C and Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) provided the presence of all doping content vibrational bands. The ceramics doped with RE and sintering additive were densified at 1700 °C in a vacuum environment for 5 hr followed by being annealed at 1400 °C for 10 h in air. The developed ceramics had a hardness of 8-9 GPa and a dielectric constant value of 20 with a very low dielectric loss.