In the present work, the influence of the temperature and sintering time on the microstructural development of ZrO2-Al2O3 ceramic composite was studied, aiming at the viability of the application of this material as dental material. Tetragonal ZrO2 powder (Y-TZP) with additions of 20wt.% of Al2O3 were mixed, pressed and sintered at 1500 or 1600°C. In each temperature, the isothermal sintering time varied between 0 and 480 minutes. Sintered samples were characterized by crystalline phases, microstructure, relative density, hardness and fracture toughness. For primary biological evaluation, cytotoxicity tests based on cellular culture of mammals were carried through. The results indicated that in all sintering conditions the samples presented only two crystalline phases, tetragonal -ZrO2 e alpha-Al2O3. An increase of the mechanical properties values as a function of the sintering temperature increase was observed, due to the increase on the densification. On the other hand, the increase of the isothermal sintering time causes a considerable reduction in the hardness and fracture toughness, which can be related to the ZrO2 and Al2O3-grain growth. The biological evaluation demonstrated that these bioceramics are biocompatible, presenting cellular growth during the cytotoxic test, indicating that these ceramic composite can be characterized as biomaterials adjusted for the application in implantations.
Bioceramic; sintering; mechanical properties
