A novel composite of 12 mol% CeO₂-stablized tetragonal ZrO₂ reinforced with Al₂O₃ whiskers (designated as Ce-TZP/A_w) has been prepared and studied in this work. The objective of this investigation was to systematically study the influence of whisker-aspect-ratio on the densification behaviors, microstructure evolution, and mechanical properties of Ce-TZP/A_w composite. Results showed that the sintered density of composite increased and the grain growth tended to diminish with the decrease in whisker aspect radio. Both the fracture toughness and flexural strength reached maximum values of 475 ± 12 MPa and 11.4 ± 0.2 MPa m^1/2, respectively at a whisker aspect ratio of about 12. It was also observed that the fracture toughness, flexural strength and tetragonal to monoclinic ZrO₂ transformation of the dual-phase composite exhibited similar variation trend as a function of the whisker-aspect-ratio, which suggested that the stress-induced phase transformation should be the main toughening and strengthening mechanism in the Ce-TZP/A_w composite.

在这项工作中，已经制备并研究了一种新型的由Al ₂ O ₃晶须增强的12 mol％CeO ₂稳定化的四方ZrO ₂复合材料（指定为Ce-TZP / A _w）。这项研究的目的是系统地研究晶须纵横比对Ce-TZP / A _w复合材料的致密化行为，微观结构演变和力学性能的影响。结果表明，随着晶须长宽比的降低，复合材料的烧结密度增加，晶粒长大趋于减小。断裂韧性和弯曲强度均达到最大值475±12 MPa和11.4±0.2 MPa m ^1/2晶须长宽比分别约为12时。还观察到，双相复合材料的断裂韧性，抗弯强度和四方ZrO ₂转变为单斜ZrO ₂，随晶须纵横比的变化表现出相似的变化趋势，这表明，应力诱导的相变应该是Ce-TZP / _Aw复合材料的主要增韧机制。