Zirconia vs. Alumina
Both zirconia and alumina are oxide-based engineering ceramics. There are 22 material properties with values for both materials. Properties with values for just one material (4, in this case) are not shown.
For each property being compared, the top bar is zirconia and the bottom bar is alumina.
Metric UnitsUS Customary Units
Mechanical Properties
| Compressive (Crushing) Strength, MPa | 1260 to 3080 | |
| 1920 to 2750 |
| Elastic (Young's, Tensile) Modulus, GPa | 190 to 200 | |
| 220 to 370 |
| Flexural Strength, MPa | 630 to 970 | |
| 260 to 430 |
| Fracture Toughness, MPa-m1/2 | 8.0 to 11 | |
| 3.7 to 7.2 |
| Knoop Hardness | 1210 to 1300 | |
| 960 to 1660 |
| Poisson's Ratio | 0.25 to 0.29 | |
| 0.22 to 0.24 |
| Tensile Strength: Ultimate (UTS), MPa | 410 to 450 | |
| 210 to 290 |
Thermal Properties
| Maximum Temperature: Mechanical, °C | 500 to 1330 | |
| 650 to 1730 |
| Maximum Thermal Shock, °C | 300 to 350 | |
| 200 to 300 |
| Specific Heat Capacity, J/kg-K | 400 to 510 | |
| 870 to 940 |
| Thermal Conductivity, W/m-K | 2.2 to 4.3 | |
| 14 to 30 |
| Thermal Expansion, µm/m-K | 8.8 to 9.5 | |
| 6.7 to 8.2 |
Electrical Properties
| Dielectric Constant (Relative Permittivity) At 1 MHz | 28 | |
| 7.8 to 11 |
| Dielectric Strength (Breakdown Potential), kV/mm | 7.7 to 9.0 | |
| 8.9 to 12 |
| Electrical Resistivity Order of Magnitude, 10x Ω-m | 4.5 to 11 | |
| 6.2 to 14 |
Otherwise Unclassified Properties
| Density, g/cm3 | 5.7 to 6.0 | |
| 3.4 to 4.1 |
Common Calculations
| Stiffness to Weight: Axial, points | 19 | |
| 35 to 53 |
| Stiffness to Weight: Bending, points | 33 to 34 | |
| 57 to 62 |
| Strength to Weight: Axial, points | 19 to 22 | |
| 14 to 23 |
| Strength to Weight: Bending, points | 21 to 23 | |
| 19 to 28 |
| Thermal Diffusivity, mm2/s | 0.73 to 1.8 | |
| 3.7 to 10 |
| Thermal Shock Resistance, points | 15 to 19 | |
| 4.9 to 14 |