Effect of stress and temperature on ferroelastic domain switching of partially stabilized zirconia pseudo-single crystals

The effect of temperature and applied stress on the ferroelastic behavior of partially stabilized zirconia pseudo-single crystals doped with 3 mol% yttria was studied using a uniaxial compression method at high temperature. X-ray diffraction patterns showed that the ferroelastic domains were rearranged to orthogonal two directions. The amount of domain switching increased with increasing applied stress but remained with loading time. The critical stress required to induce the ferroelastic domain switching decreased with increasing temperature; 200 MPa at 700°C, 160 MPa at 800°C, 125 MPa at 1000°C and 100 MPa at 1200°C. The activation energy of domain switching was calculated to be about 16 kJ/mol using critical stress vs. temperature plot. The model for explaining a domain switching mechanism was proposed on the basis of the displacement of ions.