Tribological behaviour of zirconium di-oxide ceramic

Abstract

Ceramics are gaining importance due to their non carcinogenic and bio-degradable nature. 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.