The Al2O3-YAG composite has high mechanical strength at high temperatures which allows its use in air craft applications, since it increases the thermal efficiency of jet engines and helps the development of high performance gas turbines. This composite also exhibits some favorable properties toward military applications such as armor, due to its high hardness. In this study, Al2O3-YAG and Al2O3-YAG with 4wt.% Nb2O5 (niobia) samples were produced. The precursors powders were ground in a planetary ball mill for 4 h, dried in an oven at 120 ºC during 48 h, deagglomerated and sieved. The powder mixtures were then uniaxially pressed at 70 MPa. Sintering was carried out at 1450 ºC for 2, 3, and 4 h, with heating and cooling rates of 10 ºC/min. The materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in order to characterize the microstructure. X-ray diffraction with Rietveld refinement was performed to determine and quantify the structural phases, whereas density was measured by the Archimede´s method. The samples with niobia addition revealed approximately 5wt.% of yttrium niobate (YNbO4) phase. It is worth pointing out that there is no citation in the literature involving niobia addition to the Al2O3-YAG composite. On the other hand, the obtained results indicated that additional experiments regarding the sintering conditions are necessary to optimize density.
Al2O3; YAG; sintering
