Abstract
Metal powder dispersion into ceramics materials is expected to enhance the fracture toughness. For this purpose, a new method is tried to prepare Al2O3 Pd composites. The procedure consists of electroless plating of Pd on Al2O3 powder and the following hot-pressing of the powder. Fracture toughness of hot-pressed composites thus prepared incresed to 4.3MPam1/2, which is about 20 % higher than that of pure Al2O3. SEM observation and EDX analysis on the fractured surface of the composite indicate that fine Pd powders disperse uniformly into Al2O3, matrix.
