Compositional Effects in Nanostructured Yttria Partially Stabilized Zirconia Jon Binner,* Bala Vaidhyanathan, Anish Paul, Ketharam Annaporani, and Bala Raghupathy Department of Materials, Loughborough University, Loughborough, LE11 3TU, U.K. There is a considerable current interest in learning how to process genuinely nanostructured ceramics as they offer the potential for significantly enhanced properties; however, it is often difficult to make large enough components to allow more than the most basic of property measurements. In this work, densified components measuring up to 50 mm in size have been produced and a number of very interesting properties have been measured and demonstrated. High solids content but low viscosity yttria-doped partially stabilized zirconia (YSZ) nanosuspensions have been slip cast into B52% dense, very homogeneous green bodies in sizes up to 60 mm in diameter and also granulated using spray freeze drying. When a combus- tible additive was incorporated with the latter, very flowable granulated nanopowders were achieved that could be die pressed into homogeneous, B54% dense bodies at pressures as low as 250 MPa. Successful dens- ification has been achieved using hybrid (microwave/ conventional) two-stage sintering yielding densities 499.5% of theoretical while retaining a mean grain size of o100 nm.The strength of the nanoceramics has been found to be very similar to that of conventional submicrometer ceramics, viz. B1 GPa, although the fracture mechanism was different. Two toughness measurement approaches have been used, indentation and surface crack in flexure (SCF). The results indicate that the nano 1.5 YSZ ceramics may be best viewed as crack, or damage, initiation resistant rather than crack propagation resistant; indentation toughness measure- ments as high as 14.5 MPa m 1/2 were observed. Micro- Raman mapping was demonstrated to be a very effective technique to map the phase transformations in zirconia. The wear mechanism of nanozirconia has been observed to be different compared with that in conventional, submicrometer YSZ and the wear rates to be lower, particularly under wet conditions. In addition, and potentially most usefully, the nano 3 YSZ ceramics Int. J. Appl. Ceram. Technol., ]] []]] 1–17 (2010) DOI:10.1111/j.1744-7402.2010.02503.x Ceramic Product Development and Commercialization *j.binner@lboro.ac.uk r 2010 The American Ceramic Society