Water-assisted flash sintering: Flashing ZnO at room temperature to achieve ~ 98% density in seconds. (1st January 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Nie, Jiuyuan; Zhang, Yuanyao; Chan, Jonathan M.; Huang, Rongxia; Luo, Jian
• Is Part Of: Scripta materialia. Number 142(2018)
• Page Start: 79
• Page End: 82
• Publication Date: 2018-01-01
• Subjects: Flash sintering -- Water-assisted sintering -- Ultrafast densification -- Energy-saving ceramic fabrication -- ZnO; Materials -- Periodicals; Metallurgy -- Periodicals; Metalen; Legeringen; Materiaalkunde; Metals, metalworking and machinery industries; Metals; Electronic journals; 620.11
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scriptamat.2017.08.032
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1359-6462

Abstract

Abstract: Water can trigger flash sintering of ZnO powder pellets at room temperature to achieve ~ 98% of the theoretical density in 30 s without any external furnace heating. The specimen conductivity can be increased by > 10, 000 times via absorbing water vapor to enable the room-temperature flash. The initial electric field must be higher than a critical threshold to lead to densification, suggesting bifurcation in kinetic pathways. This new cost and energy saving water-assisted flash sintering (WAFS) technology can potentially be applied to consolidate other ceramic materials. Graphical abstract: