Tribological behaviour of zirconium di-oxide ceramic

Abstract

The ZrO2 ceramic material is of prime importance. The structure of ZrO2 is monoclinic crystalline structure. It occurs in form of mineral baddeleyite. The properties of ZrO2 are: - Density= 5.68 g/cm³, molar mass=123.218 g/mol. It has good thermal insulation, high electron conductivity due to present of free oxygen ion. It is used in refractory, sensor, diesel engine and also as diamond simulant. Keeping this in view the present research work has been under taken with an objective to explore the tribological properties of ZrO2 ceramic. The ZrO2 ceramic has been made by epoxy and hardener in ratio of 10:1 and ZrO2 weight is 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50% by cumulative weight of epoxy and hardener weight. Basically. To study the wear properties the components made from this ZrO2 ceramics is subjected to wear test using a PIN-ON-DISC machine. Experiments have been conducted under laboratory conditions to access the wear behavior of the ceramics. The loss of weight has been measured in different percentage of ZrO2, with different load applied and with velocity varies from 200 to 500 rpm. The results have been drawn on graph and this shows the wear property of ZrO2 ceramics with sliding distance and load applied. The result shows that on increasing the load of pin on disc apparatus, the wear rate will increase. The structural property before and after the experiment have been drawn seen by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Wear test shows that ceramics are less prone to the variation of speed as compared to the normal load applied. The lowest wear is occurred at 30% of the ceramic and highest wear occur at 40% of zirconia with epoxy and hardener. Wear occurs due to plastic deformation. The surface formed after the wear is studied in the SEM (scanning electron microscope). It shows that, as the percentage of zirconia increases, the surface fracture decreases up to 30% of zirconia but after that, the surface fracture increases.