This investigation focused to develop 5 wt.% cerium oxide (CeO₂) reinforced inside Zirconia Toughened Alumina (ZTA) ceramics for evaluation of functional properties which is still unexplored. At first, the homogeneous composites of CeO₂/ZTA and ZTA are developed through powder metallurgy process sintered at 1600 ^oC. The morphological characterization of developed composites are carried out through field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) followed by mechanical characterization on Vickers hardness tester. The morphological study reveals that the incorporation of CeO₂ grains increases the average grain sizes of composites, adversely affect on the bulk density. The retention of high amount of metastable tetragonal phases due to presence of CeO₂ grains evaluated through XRD phase analysis shows beneficial effect on hardness and fracture toughness. Furthermore, the significant improvement of 15.07% in fracture toughness is attributed to the transformation toughening, crack bridging and deflection phenomenon. Formation of glazy and smooth surface is responsible for improvement in coefficient of friction (COF) by 24.45% compared to parent matrix. High abrasion, micro cracks, grain pullout are predominant factors responsible for wear on the ZTA surface, whereas, grain pullout and micro cracks formation are responsible for wear in CeO₂/ZTA

Keywords: Zirconia toughened alumina, Ceria, Mechanical properties, Functional properties