Abstract
In the present work, zirconia-based nanomaterials with various stabilizers were prepared by a co-precipitation technique. Defects in these nanomaterials were characterized by positron annihilation spectroscopy which is a non-destructive technique with a high sensitivity to open volume defects and atomic scale resolution.
It was found that zirconia-based nanomaterials contain vacancies and also nano-scale and meso-scale pores. Diffusion processes which occur in the nanomaterials sintered at elevated temperatures were investigated by depth sensitive positron annihilation studies on a variable energy slow positron beam.
It was found that sintering causes intensive grain growth and residual porosity is removed from samples by diffusion to the surface.