In the present paper, the influence of a-Al2O3 seeds and sintering methods on elongated grain growth and fracture toughness is investigated. The preparation of alumina ceramics started with commercial aluminum hydroxide. Abrasives were introduced to the starting materials by wet-grinding of high-purity alumina milling balls. Abrasives, playing the role of seeds, lowered the transformation temperature of aluminum hydroxide to alumina. Microstructures with elongated grains were developed by hot-pressing for the above calcined powders containing a-Al2O3 seeds, and alumina grain shapes changed with the amount of seeds introduced. However, only equiaxed grains were observed for the samples pressureless sintered. Fracture toughness of the alumina ceramics was dramatically improved by elongated grains. For the sample hot-pressed at 1600℃ for 2 h under 40 MPa pressure, fracture toughness reached 7.1 MPam1/2, which is much higher than that of normal alumina ceramics without elongated grains. In addition, high flexural strength of 630 MPa for the hot-pressed samples was also obtained.
