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JMEPEG (2014) 23:867874

DOI: 10.1007/s11665-013-0831-5

Structural, Microstructure, Mechanical and Electrical

Properties of Porous Zr4+-Cordierite Ceramic Composites
M.M.S. Sanad, M.M. Rashad, E.A. Abdel-Aal, M.F. El-Shahat, and K. Powers
(Submitted October 2, 2013; in revised form December 4, 2013; published online December 24, 2013)
Zirconium-cordierite ceramic composites have been synthesized by a co-precipitation method using
MgCl26H2O, NaAlO2, Na2SiO35H2O, and ZrOCl28H2O as starting materials. XRD, FT-IR, and SEM
techniques were employed to study the effect of zirconium on the crystal structure and microstructure of the
samples. XRD results revealed that spinel MgAl2O4 and t-ZrO2 phases were predominant in the samples
with low Zr4+ content (10 wt.%), whereas zircon ZrSiO4 was predominant with high Zr4+ content
( 15 wt.%). The densication behavior was improved from 30.4 to 44.6% of the theoretical density (2.6 g/cm3)
at 15 wt.% of Zr4+. However, microhardness of the sintered samples was enhanced from 7.1 to 7.5 GPa
with increasing the Zr4+ dose from 0 to 25 wt.%. On the other hand, the gradual increase in Zr4+ content
from 0 to 25 wt.% led to suppression in the electrical resistivity (q) from 16.6 to 2.8 3 109 X/cm, respectively. In addition, the dielectric permittivity (e) of the pure cordierite was decreased with Zr4+ ion addition.
The maximum dielectric permittivity (e) at low frequencies (10 MHz) was 18.7 at 10 wt.% Zr4+ content,
whereas at high frequencies (1 GHz) it was 38.8 at 15 wt.% Zr4+ content.

Keywords

cordierite ceramics, crystal structure, electrical properties, FT-IR, mechanical properties, microstructure

1. Introduction
Cordierite (Mg2Al4Si5O18) is a magnesium alumosilicate
which is widely used in high-temperature applications such
as catalytic converter substrates for exhaust gas control of
automobile engines (Ref 1-5) and refractory materials (Ref 1-3,
5) due to its low coefcient of thermal expansion (a = 1.54.0 9 106 K1) (Ref 1-3, 6-12), excellent thermal shock resistance (Ref 1, 3, 6, 10-13), high refractoriness (Ref 2, 3, 6), good
mechanical properties (Ref 2, 4, 10), and chemical resistance (Ref
4, 5, 14). Recently, cordierite-based ceramics have been suggested
for use as packaging substrate materials for electronic devices
because of its low dielectric constant (Ref 2-5, 8-17). The
dielectric constant and the dielectric losses (intrinsic depending
on the crystal structure and extrinsic associated with impurities,
microstructural defects, grain boundaries, porosity, microcracks,
and random crystallite orientation) represent a measure of the
electrical efciency of the material. However, cordierite materials
are difcult to be sintered by solid-state process. Therefore,
sintering of cordierite can be improved by controlling the particle
size distribution and using some additives which help the
densication process. Several studies have been conducted on
M.M.S. Sanad, M.M. Rashad, and E.A. Abdel-Aal, Central
Metallurgical R&D Institute, P.O. Box 87, Helwan, Cairo, Egypt; and
Particle Engineering Research Center, University of Florida, Gainesvile,
Fl 32611, USA; M.F. El-Shahat, Faculty of Science, Ain Shams
University, Cairo, Egypt; and K. Powers, Particle Engineering
Research Center, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
Contact e-mail: mustafa_sanad2002@yahoo.com.

Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

the crystallization and sintering behavior of cordierite-based

ceramics by addition of ZrO2 (Ref 18-23). To the best of our
knowledge, no research has been reported on investigating the
effect of Zr4+ contents on the DC and AC electrical properties of
cordierite ceramics as well as the mechanical properties of these
materials. Moreover, this study is devoted to investigate the effect
of Zr4+ addition using a novel co-precipitation technique on the
structural and morphological aspects of cordierite ceramics.

2. Experimental
2.1 Chemicals
All the chemicals used in this study (such as magnesium
chloride hexahydrate Sigma-Aldrich 99.9%, sodium aluminate
Sigma-Aldrich 99.9%, sodium silicate pentahydrate SigmaAldrich 99.9%, zirconyl chloride octahydrate Sigma-Aldrich
99.5%, and hydrochloric acid ADWIC 37%) were of analytical
grade. Deionized water was used in the whole work.

2.2 Procedure
Cordierite gel is synthesized by adding dilute hydrochloric
acid solution to the solution mixture of magnesium chloride,
sodium aluminate, and sodium silicate (stoichiometrically
mixed together achieving the 2MgO:2Al2O3:5SiO2 ratio) till
adjusting the pH range at 9-9.5. On the other hand, the gels of
zirconium-cordierite composites were prepared by adding the
adequate amount of zirconyl chloride solution of 10-25 wt.%
with respect to cordierite composition; co-precipitate the
solution mixture together at the same pH range of cordierite
gel. The aqueous suspensions were gently stirred for 15 min to
achieve a good homogeneity and to attain stable pH conditions.
All the formed gels were then ltered, washed thoroughly with
deionized water, and dried overnight at 105 C in the oven. The

Volume 23(3) March 2014867

dried precursors were annealed at 1300 C for 3 h at a rate of

5 C/min. The annealed cordierite samples are ground in an
agate mortar with a pestle. Pellets of cordierite samples were
prepared by uniaxially dry pressing the powders in a 15-mmdiameter steel die at a pressure of 3 ton. Pellets were sintered at
1300 C for 5 h with a heating rate of 5 C/min.
The overall co-precipitation reaction of cordierite precursor
could be expressed by the following chemical equation (Eq 1):
4NaAlO2 2MgCl2  6H2 O 5Na2 SiO3  5H2 O
pH 9-9:5
10HCl ! 4AlOH3 2MgOH2
5SiOH4 14NaCl 24H2 O:

Eq 1

Preparation of a-cordierite can be achieved by annealing the

dried gel powder at 1300 C for 3 h
D

4AlOH3 2MgOH2 5SiOH4 ! 2Al2 O3  2MgO  5SiO2

18H2 O:

Eq 2

Preparations of the Zr4+-cordierite composite were performed

by adding several amounts of zirconyl chloride to the cordierite gel and adjusting the pH again to 9-9.5 to get the hydrous
zirconium oxide, see Eq 3
pH 9-9:5
ZrOCl2  8H2 O 2NaOH ! ZrOOH2 2NaCl 8H2 O:

Eq 3
Unstable t-ZrO2 was obtained by annealing the dried composite precursor. Moreover, increasing the Zr4+ content enhance
the reactivity of ZrO2 to form zircon. Therefore, spinel was
formed as a result of the difference in stoichiometric ratio
between the cordierite constituents; see the Eq 4, 5 and 6
D

ZrOOH2 ! ZrO2 H2 O,
D

ZrO2 SiO2 ! ZrSiO4 ;

D

MgO Al2 O3 ! MgAl2 O4 :

Eq 4

Calculation of the fracture toughness KIC was carried out

based on the nature of cracks observed. In the case of Palmqvist
cracks, KIC was calculated based on the Palmqvist-shaped crack
model using the following relation:
KIC 0:0515 P=C 3=2 :

Eq 7

However, for the case of half-penny cracks, KIC was calculated based on the half-penny-shaped crack model using the
following relation:
KIC 0:0726 P=C 3=2 ;

Eq 8

where C is the crack length measured from the middle of the

Vickers indentation (m). P is the indentation load (N). KIC is
the fracture toughness (MPa m1/2) (Ref 24).
An electrometer and DC power supply (Agilent-4339B,
USA) were used for electrical resistivity measurement for the
experimental studies. A constant DC voltage (V) of about 1.5 V
was applied from a battery across the sample. Dielectric
properties were measured using a network impedance analyzer
(Agilent-E4991A, USA) that was responsible for the generation
and reception of signals in the frequency range of 1 MHz to
3 GHz. The electrodes of dielectric cell were made of gold (Au).
The classic parallel-plate method was used in the test xture to
determine the relative complex permittivity and the loss tangent
of the material. The parallel-plate capacitor procedure involves
placing the ceramic sample coated with silver paste in between
two circular plates; the load was then measured by LCR. The real
part of the complex relative permittivity (e) was calculated from
the capacitance, and the imaginary part of the complex relative
permittivity (e) was calculated from the measurement of the
dissipation factor. A calibration procedure performed on the test
xture using an OPEN, SHORT, and a known LOAD state
before the DUT was measured as this reduces the errors in the
system (Ref 25). The Agilent software was used to convert the
measured data into permittivity values.

Eq 5
Eq 6

3. Results and Discussion

2.3 Characterization

3.1 XRD Analysis

X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) was carried out on a model

Bruker AXS diffractometer (D8-ADVANCE Germany) with
) radiation, operating at 40 kV and
Cu-KG (k = 1.54056 A
40 mA. The diffraction data were recorded for 2h values
between 10 and 70 and the scanning rate was 3/min or 0.02/
0.4 s. Thermal analysis (TG/DTA) was performed under air
atmosphere from room temperature to 1300 C with a heating
rate of 10 C/min using (TGA, Model Q50, V6.1 series, TA
Instruments, USA). Scanning electron microscopy was investigated by a SEM (JEOL-JSM-5410 Japan). Infrared absorption
spectroscopy (IR) was performed by JASCO 3600 spectrophotometer and the resolution was set to 4 cm1 for all the
samples. The density and porosity of each sintered sample were
measured by Archimedes method. The expansion-shrinkage
measurements were achieved using an Adamel Lhormergy
1/128 inch apparatus (Instrument SA, Longjumeau). Microhardness tests were evaluated by means of a Vickers Microhardness Tester, INDENTEC-HWDN-7 Japan (2 kg normal load
applied for 15 s) as an average of six measurements. The crack
paths, introduced by Vickers indentation with 20 kg load, were
investigated in order to evaluate toughening mechanisms.

The phase structures of the powders were investigated by

XRD. Figure 1 shows the effect of Zr4+ addition on the phase
composition of cordierite annealed at 1300 C for 3 h with
various contents 0.0 to 25 wt.% of Zr4+ ion. The results of the
XRD patterns indicated that the highly crystalline a-cordierite
(ICDD: 89-1485) was identied as single phase for the pure
sample. In addition, the addition of 10 wt.% Zr4+ results in the
evolution of spinel (ICDD: 77-0435) as a major phase while
zircon (ICDD: 83-1374) and tetragonal ZrO2 (ICDD: 79-1771)
as minor phases. The reason of disappearing cordierite phase
could be attributed to the difference of stoichiometric ratio
between cordierite materials due to the higher afnity of Zr4+ to
react with SiO2, forming zircon (Ref 26, 27). In the case of
15 wt.% Zr4+ addition, a-cordierite, spinel, and zircon phases
were identied while t-ZrO2 disappeared. Moreover, the peak
intensity of zircon increased while those of a-cordierite and
spinel were decreased with using 25 wt.% Zr4+. Such obtained
results were in good agreement with the experimental evidence
gathered elsewhere (Ref 1, 28-33). ZrO2 exists as unstable
species (tetragonal and monoclinic) (Ref 34) and becomes
highly reactive with SiO2 especially at high temperature

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Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

1300 C. Hence, increasing its percent (up to 15 and 25 wt.%)

results in the formation of other phases such as zircon (ZrSiO4)
and spinel (MgAl2O4) due to the martensitic transformation
(t m), where m-ZrO2 is the most unstable form. Travitzky
and Claussen (Ref 28) have studied the cordierite-ZrO2
composites containing unstabilized and Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2.
They found that both types of composites reacted to form
zircon and spinel when sintered at (1200-1400 C) up to 24 h.
Furthermore, Srivastava et al. (Ref 35) recently tested the effect
of ceria zirconia cordierite composite by solvothermal technique. They found that the presence of ceria stabilizes t-ZrO2
and suppresses any residual phase formation.
The crystallite size was estimated from the most intense
peak of a-cordierite phase based on the Scherrer equation,
D 0:90k=bCosh;

Eq 9

where D is the average grain size, k is the x-ray wavelength,

h and b are the diffraction angle and full width at half maximum (FWHM) of an observed peak. The strongest peak at
2h = 29 was used to calculate the average crystallite size of
these nanoparticles. The changes in the crystallinity percentage for all phases with Zr4+ content was determined from the
semi-quantitative phase analysis for each phase and listed in
Table 1. The results showed that the average crystallite size
of cordierite was decreased from 105.5 to 53.2 nm with

Fig. 1 XRD patterns of cordierite nanocomposites with various

Zr4+ contents annealed at 1300 C for 3 h (ICDD: 89-1485) [a-cordierite (*), zircon ZrSiO4 (r), spinel MgAl2O4 (j), and zirconium
oxide ZrO2 (d)]

increasing Zr4+ content from 0.0 to 25 wt.%. The contraction

in the crystallite size of cordierite at higher Zr4+ content
could be related to the fast rate of crystallization which gives
insufcient time for crystal growth.

3.2 Thermal Analysis

Figure 2 reveals the DSC thermograms of two cordierite
samples. The black-colored curve represents the characteristic
thermogram for the pure cordierite sample while the redcolored one represents the cordierite thermogram in the case of
addition of 25 wt.% Zr4+ (Ref 36). It was noticed that the
endothermal shifts in the DTA baseline of the composite
sample (25 wt.% Zr4+) were shifted to a lower temperature
range (750-850 C) instead of 800-900 C for the pure sample
which indicates the acceleration in glass transition of the gel
resulting in minimizing the crystallization temperature of
l-cordierite in zirconium-cordierite composite sample as illustrated in Fig. 2. It was found that the rst exothermal peak for
l-cordierite formation disappeared for the doped sample.
Moreover, the second exothermal peak corresponding to
a-cordierite crystallization becomes broader of weaker intensity. Furthermore, the temperature of this peak was denitely
shifted to a lower temperature value to be 1065.5 C instead of
1239.6 C for the pure cordierite sample. Such thermal

Fig. 2 DTA curves of cordierite precursors in the presence and

absence of Zr4+ ions

Table 1 Effect of Zr4+ content on the phase crystallinity features for the cordierite nanocomposites annealed at 1300 C
for 3 h
Crystalline phases percentage, %
Zr4+ ion
content, %

Cordierite
crystallite
size, nm

a-Cordierite
(Mg2Al4Si5O18)
ICDD: 89-1485

Spinel
(MgAl2O4)
ICDD: 77-0435

Zircon
(ZrSiO4)
ICDD: 83-1374

Zirconium oxide
(t-ZrO2)
ICDD:79-1771

0
10
15
25

105.5 (4.5)

67.9 (1.4)
53.2 (1.1)

100 (7.5)

30 (4.4)
15 (2.1)

45 (3.2)
30 (2.9)
15 (2.2)

25 (1.5)
40 (1.7)
70 (3.5)

30 (2.0)

Mean standard error is shown in the parentheses

Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

Volume 23(3) March 2014869

behavior evinces the acceleration of crystallization rate resulting in decreasing the average crystallite size as depicted before
in Table 1.

3.3 FT-IR Spectroscopic Analysis

The FT-IR absorption spectra of the cordierite samples
annealed at 1300 C for 3 h were evinced in Fig. 3. The
characteristic peaks of a-cordierite were found at 1112, 1057,
923, 825, 712, 634, 620, 528, 466, and 432 cm1 for the pure
sample. Moreover, the characteristic band for Zircon assigned
at 610 cm1 was clearly observed in case of addition of 15 or
25 wt.% Zr4+ (Ref 37). The obtained IR results conrmed the
XRD results for the investigated samples.

3.4 Crystal Morphology Investigation

Fig. 3 FT-IR spectra of the produced cordierite nanocomposites

annealed at 1300 C for 3 h [a-cordierite (*) and zircon ZrSiO4 (r)]

Figure 4 represents SEM images of the polished surface of

cordierite pellets containing 0.0-25 wt.% Zr4+ sintered at
1300 C for 3 h. The pure sample has highly porous uffy
and spongy surface. On the other hand, the presence of Zr4+
leads to small pore sizes and more homogeneity until becoming

Fig. 4 SEM micrographs of cordierite nanocomposites at various Zr4+ contents sintered at 1300 C for 3 h: (a) pure sample, (b) 10 wt.% Zr4+,
(c) 15 wt.% Zr4+, (d) 25 wt.% Zr4+

870Volume 23(3) March 2014

Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

samples increased from 22.6 to 28% with increasing the Zr4+

content from 0.0 to 25 wt.%. The mean values of the measured
microhardness of cordierite nanocomposites are depicted in
Table 2. It was observed that hardness values were gradually
increased from 7.13 to 7.45 GPa with increasing the Zr4+ content
from 0.0 to 25 wt.%. Such effect could be due to the pronounced
improvement in the densities of the sintered samples.
The fracture toughness values of cordierite samples are
depicted in Table 3. The observed cordierite samples gave halfpenny crack according to (c/a) ratio results (where c and a are
the length and the width of the crack, respectively). By
applying the indentation fracture equation of Half-penny crack
(Ref 38), it was found that the fracture toughness (KIC)
increased with increasing the amount of zirconium. The
increase in (KIC) values might be due to the improvement of
the densication and sinterability. Accordingly, slightly higher
values for the different mechanical parameters were achieved
by addition of Zr4+ to the cordierite composition. The obtained
results for mechanical properties were in good agreement with
those experimentally investigated before (Ref 1, 21, 39, 40).

a smooth and at surface all over the ceramic body. The

obtained improvement in the surface texture of cordierite
ceramics indicates the enhancement of sinterability and densication as well as the porosity reduction as deeply discussed in
the following section.

3.5 Sintering and Mechanical Properties

It was noticed that the Zr4+ ion addition exhibited a positive
effect on the sintering and mechanical properties of cordierite
ceramics. Figure 5 shows the variations in bulk density and
total porosity of the cordierite samples with change in the Zr4+
content (0.0-25.0 wt.%). The bulk density of the sintered
cordierite samples revealed that the densication behavior was
improved from 30.4% for pure cordierite to 44.6% of the
theoretical density (2.6 g/cm3) for 15 wt.% addition of Zr4+.
Meanwhile, the total porosity was reduced by 20.1% at the
same content of Zr4+. It was obvious that the increase in the
densities of cordierite samples could be related to the formation
of spinel and zircon which was promoted by applying the slow
heating rate of 5/min and high sintering temperature 1300 C
(Ref 18, 22). The dropping in the bulk density at high content
of Zr4+ (25 wt.%) was attributed to the holes and voids
formation (15-20 lm) by the premature crystallization that
might have occurred before completion of sintering (i.e.,
exaggerated grain growth) as shown in Fig. 6 (Ref 20).
Table 2 depicts the effect of Zr4+ ion content on the densication and mechanical properties of the sintered cordierite samples.
It was observed that the linear shrinkage of the sintered cordierite

3.6.1 DC Electrical Resistivity of Sintered Cordierite. Table 3 depicts the effect of Zr4+ content on the electrical
resistivity (q) of cordierite samples. It was noticed that the
electrical resistivity (q) of cordierite ceramics decreased by
83% with increasing the Zr4+ amount to 25 wt.%.

Fig. 5 Effect of Zr4+ content on the sintering properties (bulk density and total porosity) of cordierite nanocomposites sintered at
1300 C for 3 h

Fig. 6 SEM micrographs of deep holes and pores formed in cordierite nanocomposites at 25 wt.% Zr4+ sintered at 1300 C for 3 h

3.6 Electrical Properties

Table 2 Effect of Zr4+ content on sintering and mechanical properties of the cordierite nanocomposites sintered
at 1300 C for 2 h
Zr4+ ion content, %
0
10
15
25

Bulk density,
g/cm3
0.79
1.07
1.16
1.13

(0.021)
(0.029)
(0.031)
(0.028)

Total porosity, %

Shrinkage, %

70 (2.0)
59.3 (1.8)
55.9 (1.5)
57 (1.55)

22.64
24.67
25.90
28.00

(1.5)
(1.7)
(1.8)
(2.1)

Mechanical hardness,
GPa
7.13
7.18
7.34
7.45

(0.4)
(0.4)
(0.6)
(0.8)

Fracture toughness,
MPa m1/2
1.77
1.81
1.92
2.05

(0.14)
(0.15)
(0.19)
(0.21)

Mean standard error of four measurements are shown in the parentheses

Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

Volume 23(3) March 2014871

Table 3 Effect of Zr4+ content on DC and AC electrical properties of the cordierite nanocomposites sintered at 1300 C
for 2 h
Dielectric permittivity (e) (b)
Zr4+ ion content, %

DC resistivity (a) q, X/cm

0
10
15
25

16.56 9 109 (0.8)

12.19 9 109 (0.6)
9.13 9 109 (0.3)
2.82 9 109 (0.5)

at 10 MHz

at 1 GHz

20.8
18.7
18.0
17.3

34.3
35.8
38.8
27.2

(0.047)
(0.038)
(0.036)
(0.035)

(0.48)
(0.52)
(0.61)
(0.41)

Loss tangent (tand) (b)

at 10 MHz
0.000
0.000
0.019
0.014

(0.0001)
(0.0002)
(0.0005)
(0.0003)

at 1 GHz
0.019
0.142
0.064
0.016

(0.0004)
(0.0020)
(0.0010)
(0.0003)

(a) Mean standard error of four measurements are shown in the parentheses
(b) Mean standard error of continuous measurement mode is shown in the parentheses

Fig. 7 Variation of the dielectric permittivity versus the frequency at different Zr4+ contents. Inset change in dielectric loss versus the frequency
at different Zr4+ contents

The maximum electrical conductivity of about 3.6 9

1010 X1 cm1 was achieved by addition of 25 wt.% of
Zr4+ to the cordierite composition. Such an observation of
decreasing the insulating properties by addition of ZrO2 has
been previously reported by Awano and Takagi (Ref 19).
3.6.2 Dielectric Permittivity and Dielectric Loss Tangent
of Sintered Cordierite. The dielectric properties of materials
are used to describe the electrical energy storage, dissipation, and energy transfer. Therefore, dielectric relaxation of
zirconium-cordierite composites is studied by the variation of
real part of permittivity at two frequency ranges (i.e., 1 MHz
represents the radiofrequency range and 1 GHz represents the
microwave frequency range) as illustrated in Fig. 7.
In addition, Fig. 8 shows the effect of Zr4+ content on
dielectric permittivity (e) of the sintered cordierite samples at
1300 C for 3 h. It was noticed that the addition of Zr4+ ion
caused the dielectric permittivity (e) of the pure cordierite to be
linearly decreased from 21.8 to 17.3 at 10 MHz. In contrast, a
gradual increase was observed in the values of dielectric

872Volume 23(3) March 2014

Fig. 8 Effect of Zr4+ content on dielectric permittivity (e) of the

sintered cordierite nanocomposites at 1300 C for 3 h

Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance

References

Fig. 9 Effect of Zr4+ content on dielectric loss tangent loss (tand)

of sintered cordierite nanocomposites at 1300 C for 3 h

permittivity (e) of cordierite samples from 34.3 to 38.8 at

1 GHz with increasing Zr4+ content up to 15 wt.%; then,
suddenly dropped to 27.2 at 25 wt.% Zr4+. The obvious shifts
in dielectric permittivity (e) values were coherently accompanied with the bulk density changes, the type of crystalline
phases and its content (Ref 7).
On the other hand, the effect of Zr4+ content on the dielectric
loss tangent loss (tand) of the sintered mullite samples at
1300 C for 3 h is shown in Fig. 9. It was noticed that the
dielectric loss (tand) was non-linearly increased with increasing
the Zr4+ content at both the frequency ranges (10 MHz and
1 GHz). The increase in values of dielectric loss (tand) was due
to the production of oxygen ions vacancies by Zr4+ ions (of
large ionic radii) in an extent more than that produced by pure
cordierite composition (Ref 41). In general, such surprising
investigation exhibits better use for the cordierite sintered
samples to be conducted under both continuous radiowave and
microwave frequency ranges.

4. Conclusion
The effect of Zr4+ addition from 10 to 25 wt.% on the phase
structure, sintering, mechanical and electrical properties of
a-cordierite ceramics was investigated. It was found that, spinel
and t-ZrO2 were the predominant phases at 10 wt.% Zr4+. With
the addition of Zr4+ by more than 10 wt.%, the main crystalline
phase was found to be zircon, and the secondary phases were
a-cordierite and spinel. The crystallization temperature of
a-cordierite was clearly shifted to lower temperatures. The IR
spectra of cordierite composite samples conrmed the presence
of spinel and zircon at higher Zr4+ content ( 15 wt.%). The
densest Zr4+-cordierite ceramic sample was obtained by
addition of 25 wt.% Zr4+. The microhardness and fracture
toughness were improved from 7.13 to 7.45 GPa and from 1.77
to 2.05 MPa m1/2, respectively, by addition of Zr4+ ion to
cordierite matrix. Pure cordierite and 10 wt.% Zr4+-cordierite
samples revealed zero value of the dielectric loss at 10 MHz.
Meanwhile, Zr4+-cordierite sample with 25 wt.% Zr4+ ions
showed the lowest dielectric loss of 0.16 at 1 GHz.

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