"CURRENT APPLICATION AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS OF ZIRCONIA (3YSZ) IN DENTISTRY" 

Anirutha Gnanasabai, MSE PhD Candidate 

Advisor: Professor Haiyan Wang

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ABSTRACT

3%- Yttria Stabilized Zirconia (3YSZ) is one of the most widely used material in the field of dentistry as restorations and implants. On the other hand, 3YSZ is of great interests to the ceramic community owing to its various industrial applications including thermal barrier coatings and electrolytes in solid oxide fuel cells. This paper reviews the sintering techniques, sintering mechanisms, and resulted properties of 3YSZ explored by both dentistry and ceramic communities. The paper also compares the properties required by the field of dentistry to that of the ceramic community. Specifically, since the introduction of 3YSZ as a dental material, several studies have been conducted to understand and recognize the need to improve properties of the material, both mechanical and optical, to survive in the oral environment. Despite decades of research, the dental community still faces several clinical challenges such as fracture and chipping. Additionally, sintering of 3YSZ takes hours, making it difficult for both the dentist and the patients. On the other hand, the ceramic research community looks at sintering mechanism to shorten the sintering time to control grain growth while maintaining/ improving the mechanical properties of ceramics. Such sintering techniques include Spark Plasma Sintering, Flash Sintering and a combined technique, Flash Spark Plasma Sintering. Last, the paper overviews the similarity and differences between the two research communities, analyzes the gaps in both fields and proposes several future research opportunities towards optimum dental zirconia.