Nanosize stabilization of cubic and tetragonal phases in reactive plasma synthesized zirconia powders

Abstract

Pure zirconium oxide powders with particle size 2e33 nm are synthesized by reactive plasma processing. Transmission electron microscopy investigation of these particles revealed size dependent behavior for their phase stabilization. The monoclinic phase is found to be stable when particle size is 20 nm;Tetragonal is found to be stabilized in the range of 7e20 nm and as the particle size decreases to 6 nm and less, the cubic phase is stabilized.