Synthesis and study of (Na, Zr) and (Ca, Zr) phosphate-molybdates and phosphate-tungstates: Thermal expansion behavior, radiation test and hydrolytic stability

Abstract

Thermal expansion behavior at high temperatures of synthesized Na$_{1-x}$Zr$_2$(PO$_4$)$_{3-x}$(XO$_4$)$_x$, and Ca$_{1-x}$Zr$_2$(PO$_4$)$_{3-x}$(XO$_4$)$_x$, X = Mo, W compounds has been investigated. Ceramics with relatively high density (more than 97.5%) were produced by Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) of submicron powders obtained by sol-gel synthesis. The study of strength characteristics has revealed that hardness the ceramics are greater than 5 GPa, and minimum fracture toughness factor was 1 MPa*m$^{1/2}$. It was found that ceramics have a high hydrolytic resistance in the static regime -- the minimum leaching rates for the Mo- and W-containing specimens were $31\times10^{-6}$ and $3.36\times 10^{-6}$ g/(cm$^2$*day), respectively. The ceramics had a high resistance to the irradiation by Xe$^{+26}$ multiple-charged ions with the energy 167 MeV up to the fluences in the range 1*10$^{12}$ - 6*10$^{13}$ cm$^{-2}$. The Mo-containing Na$_{0.5}$Zr$_2$(PO$_4$)$_{2.5}$(XO$_4$)$_{0.5}$ ceramics were shown to have a higher radiation resistance that the phosphate-tungstates.