Flash Sintering Research Perspective: A Bibliometric Analysis

Flash Sintering (FS), a relatively new Field-Assisted Sintering Technique (FAST) for ceramic processing, was proposed for the first time in 2010 by Prof. Rishi Raj’s group from the University of Colorado at Boulder. It quickly grabbed the attention of the scientific community and since then, the field has rapidly evolved, constituting a true milestone in materials processing with the number of publications growing year by year. Moreover, nowadays, there is already a scientific community devoted to FS. In this work, a general picture of the scientific landscape of FS is drawn by bibliometric analysis. The target sources, the most relevant documents, hot and trending topics as well as the social networking of FS are unveiled. A separate bibliometric analysis is also provided for Reaction or Reactive Flash Sintering (RFS), where not only the sintering, but also the synthesis is merged into a single step. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of this nature carried out in this field of research and it can constitute a useful tool for researchers to be quickly updated with FS as well as to strategize future research and publishing approaches.

Influence of Dwell Time and Pressure on SPS Process with Titanium Aluminides

Spark plasma sintering (SPS) or the field-assisted sintering technique (FAST) is commonly used to process powders that are difficult to consolidate, more efficiently than in the conventional powder metallurgy process route. During the process, holding time and applied holding pressure influence the product’s microstructure and subsequently its properties. In this study, in addition to the temperature impact, the influence of pressure and dwell time on the consolidation behaviour of titanium aluminide (TiAl) powders during the SPS process is investigated. Commercially available pre-alloyed TiAl48-2Cr-2Nb (GE48) and TiAl44-4Nb-0.7Mo-0.1B (TNM) powders were used, which have a high application potential in, for example, the aerospace industry. The results were evaluated based on microstructural analyses, hardness measurements and relative density calculations. It was shown that the investigated parameters significantly influence the sintering results, especially in the low temperature range. Depending on the temperature field in the sample, complete sintering is not achieved if the dwell time is too short in combination with too low a pressure. Above a certain temperature, the impact of holding pressure and holding time is significantly lower.

The Effect of Reactive Electric Field-Assisted Sintering of MoS2/Bi2Te3 Heterostructure on the Phase Integrity of Bi2Te3 Matrix and the Thermoelectric Properties

In this work, a series of Bi2Te3/X mol% MoS2 (X = 0, 25, 50, 75) bulk nanocomposites were prepared by hydrothermal reaction followed by reactive spark plasma sintering (SPS). X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) indicates that the native nanopowders, comprising of Bi2Te3/MoS2 heterostructure, are highly reactive during the electric field-assisted sintering by SPS. The nano-sized MoS2 particles react with the Bi2Te3 plates matrix forming a mixed-anion compound, Bi2Te2S, at the interface between the nanoplates. The transport properties characterizations revealed a significant influence of the nanocomposite structure formation on the native electrical conductivity, Seebeck coefficient, and thermal conductivity of the initial Bi2Te3 matrix. As a result, enhanced ZT values have been obtained in Bi2Te3/25 mol% MoS2 over the temperature range of 300–475 K induced mainly by a significant increase in the electrical conductivity.

The preparation of Li7La3Zn2O12(LLZO) battery ceramic and its conductivity

For Li7La3Zr2O12 (LLZO) solid electrolytes, higher density usually means higher ionic conductivity. Researchers tried many preparation methods to get high density samples and at same times to realize industrial production, low cost, scalable and fast synthesis techniques. In this paper, the mainstream preparation methods of LLZO was given, as polymerized complex method, sol-gel method, field assisted sintering, combustion technique, auto-consolidation method, water-based solvent method. Among these methods, the last four methods can always increase the density to more than 93%. Especially the field assisted sintering method can make the relative density to be high as 99.8%. And all of these methods can make the ion conductivity to be higher than 1.4 × 10-4 S cm-1. Also, most of these methods introduced the Al element into LLZO to realize the liquid sintering.

Ultrashort Sintering and Near Net Shaping of Zr-Based AMZ4 Bulk Metallic Glass

The GeniCore Upgraded Field Assisted Sintering Technology U-FAST was applied to the sintering of a commercial Zr-based bulk metallic glass powder AMZ4. The XRD, SEM and DSC analysis of the sintered compacts showed the benefit of the U-FAST method as an enabler for the production of fully amorphous samples with 100% relative density when sintering at 420 °C/480 s (693 K/480 s) and 440 °C/ 60 s (713 K/480 s). The hardness values for fully amorphous samples, over HV1 519, surpass cast materials and 1625 MPa compressive strengths are comparable to commercial cast products. The advantage of the U-FAST technology in this work is attributed to the high heating and cooling rates inherent to ultra-short pulses, which allow to maintain metastable structures and achieve better temperature control during the process. Increasing sintering temperature and time led to the crystallization of the materials. The geometry and material of the dies and punch determine the thermal inertia and pressure distribution inside the compacts, thus affecting the properties of the near net shape NNS compacts made using the U-FAST device.