Silicon Nitride vs. Zirconia
Silicon nitride belongs to the non-oxide engineering ceramics classification, while zirconia belongs to the oxide-based engineering ceramics. There are 17 material properties with values for both materials. Properties with values for just one material (5, in this case) are not shown. Please note that the two materials have significantly dissimilar densities. This means that additional care is required when interpreting the data, because some material properties are based on units of mass, while others are based on units of area or volume.
For each property being compared, the top bar is silicon nitride and the bottom bar is zirconia.
Metric UnitsUS Customary Units
Mechanical Properties
| Compressive (Crushing) Strength, MPa | 600 to 2950 | |
| 1260 to 3080 |
| Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa | 140 to 310 | |
| 190 to 200 |
| Flexural Strength, MPa | 130 to 810 | |
| 630 to 970 |
| Fracture Toughness, MPa-m1/2 | 3.1 to 6.2 | |
| 8.0 to 11 |
| Poisson's Ratio | 0.24 to 0.27 | |
| 0.25 to 0.29 |
Thermal Properties
| Maximum Temperature: Mechanical, °C | 1000 to 1330 | |
| 500 to 1330 |
| Maximum Thermal Shock, °C | 290 to 750 | |
| 300 to 350 |
| Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K | 720 to 800 | |
| 400 to 510 |
| Thermal Conductivity, W/m-K | 12 to 31 | |
| 2.2 to 4.3 |
| Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K | 2.5 to 3.2 | |
| 8.8 to 9.5 |
Electrical Properties
| Dielectric Constant (Relative Permittivity) At 1 MHz | 8.0 to 10 | |
| 28 |
| Dielectric Strength (Breakdown Potential), kV/mm | 18 | |
| 7.7 to 9.0 |
| Electrical Resistivity Order of Magnitude, 10x Ω-m | 11 to 12 | |
| 4.5 to 11 |
Otherwise Unclassified Properties
| Density, g/cm3 | 2.2 to 3.4 | |
| 5.7 to 6.0 |
Common Calculations
| Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points | 34 to 53 | |
| 19 |
| Stiffness to Weight: Bending, points | 65 to 78 | |
| 33 to 34 |
| Thermal Diffusivity, mm2/s | 7.5 to 13 | |
| 0.73 to 1.8 |