The main advantage of Zirconia Toughened Alumina (ZTA) is the additional strength and toughness over alumina with a lower cost than zirconia (YTZP, MSZ, CSZ).

The combination of aluminum oxide and 10-20% zirconium oxide provides a much higher strength, toughness, hardness and wear resistance than alumina alone.

The 20-30% increase in strength often provides the design criteria needed at a much lower cost than using zirconia.

A process called transformation toughening is the phenomenon that increases the fracture toughness of ZTA. When placed under stress, the zirconia particles change their crystal structure from a tetragonal to a monoclinic structure, causing a volume expansion that compresses the surrounding crack in the alumina matrix.

ZTA should be considered for any application where structural strength is needed that exceeds the standard alumina properties.