< Back to previous page

Project

Aging-resistant zirconia ceramic for dental restorations.

Zirconia ceramics are strong, tough and wear resistant and are used for orthopaedic implants since quite some time. Despite the susceptibility of zirconia to low temperature degradation ageing, i.e. the transformation of the metastable tetragonal to monoclinic ZrO2-phase in aqueous conditions at 20-250°C, zirconia ceramics are fast introduced for restoring and replacing teeth. So far, the dental community only reported minor shortcomings such as chipping of the veneering porcelain and the difficulty to adhere zirconia-based restorations on the remaining tooth structure, but long-term clinical data are still lacking. In this project, FWO funds the acquisition of an ion slicer for the preparation of transmission electron microscopy samples to support the development of ageing-resistant zirconia ceramics for dental restorations.
Date:1 Jan 2010 →  31 Dec 2013
Keywords:Dental applications, Zirconia, Low-temperature degradation, Veneering procelain, Transmission electron microscopy, Ion slicer
Disciplines:Dentistry, Ceramic and glass materials, Materials science and engineering, Semiconductor materials, Other materials engineering