Carbon-Coated Nanopowder as Sintering Aid for Water-Atomized Iron Powder

The influence of carbon coating on the nanopowder when used as a sintering aid for water-atomized iron powder is explored. Iron nanopowder without such a coating was used as a reference sintering aid to isolate and depict the influence of the carbon coating. Both nanopowder variants were characterized using XPS and HRTEM, and the results showed a core-shell structure for both nanopowder variants. Iron nanopowder is covered by a 3-4 nm thick iron oxide layer, while the carbon-coated nanopowder is encapsulated with a number of nanometric carbon layers. Thermogravimetry carried out in a pure hydrogen environment shows a multipeak behaviour for carbon-coated nanopowder, while a single peak behaviour is observed for the iron nanopowder. This difference was correlated with chemical analysis. Two types of micro/nanobimodal powders were obtained by mixing the nanopowder with water-atomized iron powder. An improved linear shrinkage was observed when carbon-coated iron nanopowder was added. This can be explained by the reduced surface diffusion in the nanopowder due to the carbon coating, which allows the nanopowder to sinter at higher temperatures and improves densification.

Tribological Behaviour of Alumina Ceramics with Nano TiO2 as a sintering aid in Non-Conformal Contact

The study emphasized the sintering behaviour and tribo-mechanical properties of alumina ceramics by nano TiO2 addition as a sintering aid. With increase in sintering temperature, the bulk density of alumina has increased gradually and optimized at 1600°C. The optimizing effect of densification at 1600°C is 98.25% by the addition of 1 wt.% nano TiO2. The maximum solid solubility of titania in alumina grains was at 1600°C, causes optimisation of densification by 1 wt. % addition. The excess addition of TiO2 formed low dense Al2TiO5, appear as a secondary phase at grain boundaries and does not significantly improved densification. Fracture toughness increases and coefficient of friction decreases with the addition of nano TiO2 in alumina matrix. The 1wt.% nano TiO2 addition improved hardness to 8.82% and reduces specific wear rate to 45.56%. The 1wt.% nano TiO2 addition greatly influenced the microstructure of sintered Al2O3. The morphology was sharply changed from hexagonal columnar shape to order sub round orientation which also directly impact the tribo-mechanical properties of sintered alumina. The 1wt.% addition substantially decreases wear track depth as observed by 3D surface profilometer. Microscopic observation of the worn-out surface showed that wearing is majorly caused by plastic deformation and abrasion.

Research on Control Factors and Performance of YAG Porous Ceramics

In this paper, the YAG powder is prepared by the co-precipitation method. In addition, the sintering aid to aid sintering and the high temperature foaming agent that becomes gas released during the heating process so that the sample has pores, the ball mill mixes the material, and the sample press is extruded. Box-type resistance furnace sintering. Through this process, porous ceramics can be made. Study the effect of sintering aid content, foaming agent type, sintering temperature on the properties of YAG porous materials. The analysis and discussion can lead to the following conclusions: as the content of sintering aid silica in the sample increases, the sintering temperature of the sample decreases. It is best when the ratio of sintering aid alumina to silica is 3:1. The moldability of the sample whose foaming agent is wood chips is worse than that of the sample whose foaming agent is fiber and carbon powder. The ratio of sintering aid alumina to silica is 3:1, and the sintering temperature of the sample with carbon powder as the blowing agent is best when the sintering temperature is 1400 °C.

Sintering characteristics and microwave dielectric properties of 0.5(Ca0.7Nd0.2)TiO3–0.5(Li0.5Nd0.5)TiO3 ceramics with La2O3–B2O3–CaO–P2O5 additive

In this paper, the effects of glass-ceramics sintering aid, La2O3–B2O3–CaO–P2O5 (LBCP), on the sinterability, microstructure, and microwave dielectric properties of 0.5(Ca[Formula: see text]Nd[Formula: see text]TiO3–0.5(Li[Formula: see text]Nd[Formula: see text]TiO3 (CNT–LNT) ceramic have been investigated. The results indicated that LBCP glass-ceramics has good wettability to CNT–LNT (contact angle at 980[Formula: see text]C is 31.9[Formula: see text]), and it can be used as an effective sintering aid to reduce the sintering temperature of CNT–LNT ceramic from 1300[Formula: see text]C to 980[Formula: see text]C. LBCP glass-ceramics did not change the main crystal phase (perovskite structure) of the sample, but a small amount of LaBO3 and LaPO4 phases was precipitated. Since the LaBO3 and LaPO4 phases are low-loss phases, it is believed that the crystal phases can improve the dielectric properties of the sample, especially the dielectric loss. The samples with 10 wt.% of glass additive sintered for 4 h at 980[Formula: see text]C exhibit the optimized properties: a high dielectric constant of 80.8 and a [Formula: see text] value of 2031 GHz. The high [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] value, coupled with a relatively low sintering temperature, suggest that the optimized compositions have the potential to be used in microwave low-temperature co-fired ceramics applications.

Cold Sintering of PZT 2-2 Composites for High Frequency Ultrasound Transducer Arrays

Medical ultrasound and other devices that require transducer arrays are difficult to manufacture, particularly for high frequency devices (>30 MHz). To enable focusing and beam steering, it is necessary to reduce the center-to-center element spacing to half of the acoustic wavelength. Conventional methodologies prevent co-sintering ceramic–polymer composites due to the low decomposition temperatures of the polymer. Moreover, for ultrasound transducer arrays exceeding 30 MHz, methods such as dice-and-fill cannot provide the dimensional tolerances required. Other techniques in which the ceramic is formed in the green state often fail to retain the required dimensions without distortion on firing the ceramic. This paper explores the use of the cold sintering process to produce dense lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics for application in high frequency transducer arrays. PZT–polymer 2-2 composites were fabricated by cold sintering tape cast PZT with Pb nitrate as a sintering aid and ZnO as the sacrificial layer. PZT beams of 35 μm width with ~5.4 μm kerfs were produced by this technique. The ZnO sacrificial layer was also found to serve as a liquid phase sintering aid that led to grain growth in adjacent PZT. This composite produced resonance frequencies of >17 MHz.