Effect of immersion process on microstructure and properties of zirconia fiber cloth

Zirconia fiber cloth was prepared by precursor immersion process. The microstructure of viscose textile and zirconia fiber cloth was studied by SEM and XRD. The tensile strength of zirconia fiber cloth was also tested. The effect of immersion process on the microstructure, area density and tensile strength of zirconia fiber cloth were studied. The results show that viscose textile is very suitable to be used as the precursor for preparing zirconia fiber cloth. Improving of immersion process, increasing of immersion solution's concentration and temperature could increase the area density of zirconia fiber cloth. The effect of immersion method on the dense of fibers is significant and the effect of excess solution removing method on the bonding of fibers is significant too; the tensile strength of zirconia fiber cloth can be increased significantly by immersion with rolling and centrifugation removing excess solution.