In the present work, the effect of low temperature sintering, focusing on varying the sintering holding times on the mechanical properties, microstructure and low temperature degradation behavior of undoped and MnO2-doped Y-TZP ceramics were investigated. Green samples were sintered at temperatures ranging from 1100 to 1250 oC at varying holding times ranging from 12 min. to 480 min. The sintered bodies were characterized in terms of bulk density, Vickers hardness, fracture toughness, phase stability and grain size. The results indicated that the relative density of above 95%, Vickers hardness of 14 GPa and fracture toughness of 5MPam1/2 were obtained when sintered at lower sintering temperature (below 1250 oC) and longer sintering times for MnO2-doped Y-TZP samples. Grain growth was marginal and the average grain size of all samples ranged between 0.14 and 0.28 μm. The results indicated that the grain growth kinetics was influenced mainly by the sintering temperature and not by the sintering holding time. The addition of MnO2 was found to be beneficial in enhancing densification and mechanical properties of Y-TZP particularly at low sintering temperature of 1100 oC and low holding time of 12 min. The low-temperature degradation experiment conducted in superheated steam indicated that all the samples did not transformed to the monoclinic symmetry, attributed mainly to the lower grain size sintered at relatively low sintering temperatures

Keywords: Low temperature sintering, prolonged holding times, Y-TZP, Mechanical properties, Low temperature degradation