Novel Two-Step Sintering And In Situ Bonding Method For Fabrication Of Zrp2o7 Ceramics

Sintering performance at high temperatures is a serious issue for tetravalent metal pyrophosphate MP2O7 ceramics (M = Ti, Zr, Hf, Ge, Sn, etc.). Herein, we investigated the influence of high synthesis temperatures and amounts of ZrP2O7 precursors on the properties of ZrP2O7 ceramics. A ZrP2O7 powder was first synthesised via a solid-state reaction; this powder was used in the fabrication of the ZrP2O7 ceramic using a combination of twostep sintering and in situ bonding using MgO as the sintering aid. The phase composition and microstructure of the ZrP2O7 powder as well as the ZrP2O7 ceramic were studied by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The physical properties and room-temperature thermal conductivity of the ZrP2O7 ceramic were investigated. The ceramic exhibited high thermal stability at 1350 degrees C. This study indicates that the mechanical properties of the ZrP2O7 ceramic can be enhanced while maintaining their low thermal conductivity by sintering it at 1300 degrees C with the addition of an appropriate amount of the ZrP2O7 precursors to the ZrP2O7 powder.