Effect of Sintering Additives on Properties of Si_3N_4BN Composites Fabricated via Die Pressing and Precursor Infiltration and Pyrolysis Route

The Si3N4-BN composites have been prepared via die pressing and precursor infiltration and pyrolysis route using borazine as precursor, and the effect of sintering additives on properties of the composites has been investigated. After sintering additives are adopted, the a to β phase transition of Si3N4 and the mechanical properties of the composites at both room temperature and high temperature are all increased with small extent. When using Y2O3＋Al2O3 as additives, the phase transition of Si3N4 and the mechanical properties of the composites have better results. The β-Si3N4 content is 17.47%. The flexural strength, elastic modulus and fracture toughness of the composites are 188.74 MPa, 84.34 GPa and 2.96 MPa.m1/2, respectively. After exposed at 1 000 ℃ in the air for 15 min, the flexural strength of the composites is 154.62 MPa with a residual ratio of 81.92%. The elongated β-Si3N4 grains appear in all composites with different sintering additives. Relatively more rod like β-Si3N4 grains can be observed in composites with Y2O3＋Al2O3 as additives, making it to possess better mechanical properties.

Effects of Sintering Additives on Preparation of CaF_2 Transparent Ceramics

The effects of different sintering addictives on the preparation of CaF2 transparent ceramics were studied. Transparent CaF2 ceramics were fabricated by vacuum sintering and hot isostatic pressing （HIP） method, using CaF2 nanopowders synthesized by chemical precipitation method as raw materials. The nanopowders and transparent ceramics were studied using X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy （TEM）, scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and spectrophotometer. The experimental results indicated that the obtained nanopowders presented normal distribution with grain size about 30 nm; transmittance of CaF2 transparent ceramics was 39% and 26% at 1100 nm for LiF and NaF as sintering addictives, respectively, with corresponding mean grain size 188 μm and 44 μm. Loss of transmission could be attributed to the residual closed porosity. Sintering mechanism was liquid-phase sintering at pre-stage, then solid-phase sintering at later stage, as well as solid solution of lithium ions and sodium ions in the CaF2 lattice structure.

Preparation and Properties of Sintering Additives Coated Si_3N_4 from Heterogeneous Nucleation Processing

The sintering additives such as Al2O3 and/or Y2O3 were coated on the surfaces of Si3N4 particles via heterogeneous nucleation processing using a buffered pH solution as the precipitation reagent. They nucleated and grew only on the surfaces of Si3N4 and did not form sol particles in solution by TEM observation. The isoelectric point (IEP) of coated Si3N4 was different from that of as-received Si3N4. The IEP of AI(OH)3-coated Si3N4 occurred at pH8.4, which is close to that of alumina. When AI(OH)3-coated Si3N4 particles were coated with Y(OH)3, the IEP of coated Si3N4 powder shifted from pH8.4 to pH9.2, similar to that of yttria. In addition, the rheological data showed that Al2O3 and/or Y2O3 coated Si3N4 suspension is nearly Newtonian and that added Si3N4 suspension shows a shear rate thinning behavior.

Fabrication and flexural strength of porous Si3N4 ceramics with Li2CO3 and Y2O3 as sintering additives

By employing sintering additives of Li2CO3 and Y2O3,porous Si3N4 ceramics are prepared after experiencing the processes of sintering and post-vacuum heat treatment at 1680 and 1550°C,respectively.The experimental results demonstrate the completed phase transformation fromαtoβ-Si3N4 in Si3N4 ceramic samples with a amount of 1.60 wt%Li2CO3(0.65 wt%Li2O)and 0.33 wt%Y2O3 additives.The as-synthesized porous Si3N4 ceramics exhibit high flexural strength((126.7±2.7)MPa)and high open porosity of 50.4%at elevated temperature(1200°C).These results are attributed to the significant role of added Li2CO3 as sintering additive,where the volatilization of intergranular glassy phase occurs during sintering process.Therefore,porous Si3N4 ceramics with desired mechanical property prepared by altering the addition of sintering additives demonstrate their great potential as a promising candidate for high temperature applications.

Preparation of hollow fiber membranes from mullite particles with aid of sintering additives

Porous mullite hollow fiber membranes were prepared with a combined phase-inversion and sintering method,using three sintering additives including yttrium stabilized zirconia(YSZ),small mullite particles(SMP),and titanium oxide(TiO2)to promote the particle sintering.The results indicated that all the three additives could improve the sintering performance of mullite hollow fiber membranes due to the decrease in activation energy of mullite grains.Both YSZ and T i02 could react with mullite grains to generate composite oxides(e.g.,ZrSi04 and Al2Ti05)during sintering,following a reaction-sintering mechanism.Interestingly,the newly generated ZrSiO4 was instable and further decomposed into monoclinic ZrO2 and SiO2 in the sintering process.The decomposition could avoid excessive embedment of composite oxides among mullite grains which have negative impact on mechanical strength of mullite hollow fibers.Overall,the doping of YSZ provided a better promotion effect on the sintering of mullite hollow fiber membranes,where the microstructural and mechanical properties are insensitive to the doping content and sintering temperatures,so it could be used as the candidate for the large-scale preparation of mullite hollow fibers.

Novel Phenomenon on Valence Unvariation of Doping Ion in Yb:YAG Transparent Ceramics Using MgO Additives

Yb：YAG nanopowders were synthesized by the alcohol-water co-precipitatlon method adding MgO as sintering additives. Appropriate amount of MgO adding can restrict the agglomeration and reduce the particle size of Yb：YAG powders. When the MgO content was 0.04wt%, well-dispersed Yb：YAG powders with ellipsoidal particles of less than 100 nm diameter were obtained. The experimental results showed the valence variation of doping ion Yb〉 would not appear when adding MgO as sintering additives, so ceramics showed colorless transparent instead of green due to Yb^2＋ color center using traditional SiO2 as additives. The transmission of the sintered Yb：YAG ceramics can reach 80.6% even without annealing. Ceramic morphology showed that the grains had uniform-distribution with the size of 10 iam or so, and no impurity and pore existed in the grain boundary and crystalline while using optimal sintering conditions.

Effect of Sintering Additive on the Properties of Sialon-SiC by Gelcasting

Sintering additives to gelcasting Sialon-SiC were decided by the optimizing experiments. The results show that Sialon-SiC can be sintered under 1450℃ and sintering temperature decreases by 100℃, when 2%～3% TiO 2 or Guangxi clay is used as sintering additive.

Effects of the original state of sodium-based additives on microstructure,surface characteristics and filtration performance of SiC membranes

Sodium-contained compounds are promising sintering additives for the low-temperature preparation of reaction bonded SiC membranes.Although sodium-based sintering additives in various original states were attempted,their effects on microstructure and surface properties have rarely been studied.In this work,three types of sodium-based additives,including solid-state NaA zeolite residue(NaA)and liquidstate dodecylbenzene sulfonate(SDBS)and water glass(WG),were separately adopted to prepare SiC membranes,and the microstructure,surface characteristics and filtration performance of these SiC membranes were comparatively studied.Results showed that the SiC membranes prepared with liquid-state SDBS and WG(S-SDBS and S-WG)showed lower open porosity yet higher bending strength compared to those prepared with solid-state NaA(S-NaA).The observed differences in bending strength were further interpreted by analyzing the reaction process of each sintering additive and the composition of the bonding phase in the reaction bonded SiC membranes.Meanwhile,the microstructural differentiation was correlated to the original state of the additives.In addition,their surface characteristics and filtration performance for oil-in-water emulsion were examined and correlated to the membrane microstructure.The S-NaA samples showed higher hydrophilicity,lower surface roughness(1.80μm)and higher rejection ratio(99.99%)in O/W emulsion separation than those of S-WG and S-SDBS.This can be attributed to the smaller mean pore size and higher open porosity,resulting from the originally solid-state NaA additives.Therefore,this work revealed the comprehensive effects of original state of sintering additives on the prepared SiC membranes,which could be helpful for the application-oriented fabrication by choosing additives in suitable state.

Sintering Densification of Boron Carbide Materials and Their Research Progress

Boron carbide(B_(4)C)has excellent high-temperature oxidation resistance,high hardness,low relative density,high melting point and excellent abrasive resistance,which is widely used in fields such as refractories,wear-resistant materials and lightweight protective materials.The research progress and application of B_(4)C materials in China and overseas in recent years were summarized.The influences of sintering processes(pressureless sintering,hot-pressing sintering,hot isostatic pressing sintering,spark plasma sintering and microwave sintering)and sintering additives(simple substances,oxides and carbides)on the B_(4)C densification were analyzed.The development of B_(4)C materials was prospected.

Carburized Effect on Gradient Cemented Carbide of TiC/TaC Prepared by Liquid Phase Sintering

The carburized graded cemented carbide with the addition of some（Ti,Ta） C was analyzed in detail.The micro-structure and element distribution were measured by using optical microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectrometry along the gradient direction.The experimental results showed that a large amount of solid solution phases were formed and distributed like clusters in the surface layer of cemented carbide.The cobalt migration was not very notable and the Co-rich layer was close to the surface of cemented carbide.

Densification and lithium ion conductivity of garnet-type Li_(7-x)La_3Zr_(2-x)Ta_xO_(12) (x=0.25) solid electrolytes

The garnet-type Li7La3Zr2O12 ceramic is a promising solid electrolyte for all-solid-state secondary lithium batteries. However, it faces the problem of lithium volatilization during sintering, which may cause low density and deterioration of ionic conductivity. In this work, the effects of sintering temperature and addition on the density as well as the lithium ion conductivity of Li7-xLa3Zr2-xTaxO12 （LLZTO, x=0.25） ceramics prepared by solid state reaction have been studied. It is found that optimization of the sintering temperature leads to a minor increase in the ceramic density, yielding an optimum ionic conductivity of 2.9×10-4 S·cm-1 at 25℃. Introduction of Li 3 PO 4 addition in an appropriate concentration can obviously increase the density, leading to an optimum ionic conductivity of 7.2×10-4 S·cm-1 at 25℃. This value is superior to the conductivity data in most recent reports on the LLZTO ceramics.

Microstructure and Mechanical Property of (TiNbTaZrHf)C Synthesized by In-situ Reaction

The(TiNbTaZrHf)C high entropy carbide(HEC)was successfully synthesized by complete commercial transition metal powders,obtained fine sintered bulks without additives by in-situ reaction element synthesis method.(TiNbTaZrHf)C bulk shows a face centered cubic rock salt structure with homogeneous single-phase FCC structure in composition and structure.The optimum sintering temperature is about 1900℃at which the best mechanical properties are obtained.The mechanical properties of(TiNbTaZrHf)C ceramic block are better than those of binary transition metal carbides,and it has obvious high entropy effect.Adding a small amount of Al as sintering additive,the mechanical properties of(TiNbTaZrHf)C ceramics continue to improve,the bending strength of the samples at each temperature is increased by at least 38%,and the highest is 486 MPa.The elastic modulus and hardness of the sample at 1900℃are also slightly increased by 4%and 14%,respectively.The above conclusions illustrate that the properties of high entropy ceramics are greatly improved by in-situ reaction sintering.

Preparation and Properties of High-strength Ceramsite in Low Water Absorption

Fly ash used as the main raw materials,incorporated with sintering expansion additive and fluxing additive in different ratio,was sintered high-strength lightweight aggregates of fly ash (ceramsite) in the laboratory-controlled electric furnace.The results show that the optimal sintering system is the sintering temperature range of 1250 ℃ to 1280 ℃ and retaining time of 5 min-10 min.The bulk density,the apparent density and 24 h water absorption of ceramsites decrease with the increase of sintering additive and the decrease of the amount of fly ash.The addition of fluxing additive can significantly enhance the compressive strength of ceramsite pellets,reduce its water absorption at 24 h and improve pore-shape ofinner structure.The firing coefficient (Pk) changed within 7.8-8.1 of raw materials can prepare high strength and low water absorption ceramsites.Pk kept a good linear relationship with porosity and strength of ceramsite particles.

Fabrication of AION transparent ceramics with Si_(3)N_(4) sintering additive

In this paper,Si_(3)N_(4) was used as a novel solid-state sintering additive to prepare AION transparent ceramics with high transparency and flexural strength via the pressureless pre-sintering and hot isostatic pressing(HIP)method at a relatively low HIP temperature(1800℃).The effect of Si_(3)N_(4) content on the phase,microstructure,optical property,and flexural strength was investigated.The experimental results showed that a Si element was homogenously distributed in both pre-sintered and HIPed AION ceramics.The densification enhanced,the grain grew with the increasing Si_(3)N_(4) content in the pre-sintered AION ceramics,and all the samples became pore-free after HIP,which favor transparency.The AION ceramics doped with 0.10 wt%Si_(3)N_(4) had the highest transmittance of 83.8%at 600 nm and 85.6%at 2000 nm(4 mm in thickness),with flexural strength of 404 MPa,which were higher than those of the previous reports.

Influence of Lithium Oxide Addition on the Sintering Behavior and Electrical Conductivity of Gadolinia Doped Ceria

Ceria-based electrolytes have been widely researched in intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cell （SOFC）, which might be operated at 500-600℃. Sintering behavior with lithium oxide as sintering additive and electrical conductivity of gadolinia doped ceria （GdonCe0.902-σ, GDC10） electrolyte was studied in this paper by X-ray diffraction （XRD）, scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy （EIS）. As the results,, the fully dense GDC10 electrolytes are obtained at a low temperature of 800℃ with 2.5 mol% Li20 as sintering additive （called 5LiGDCS00）. During sintering process, lithium oxides adsorbed by around GDC10 surface help to sinter at 800~C and are kept at the grain boundary of GDC10 in the end. The fine grains of 100-400 nm and high electrical conductivity of 0.014 S/cm at 600~C in 5LiGDC800 were achieved, which contributed to the lower sintering temperature and enhanced grain boundary conductivity, respectively. Lithium, staying at grain boundary, reduces the depletion of oxygen vacancies in the space charge layers and increases the oxygen vacancy concentration in the grain boundary, which leads to improve the total electrical conductivity of 5LiGDC800.

Advances in fabrication of ceramic corundum abrasives based on sol–gel process

Corundum abrasives with good chemical stability can be fabricated into various free abrasives and bonded abrasive tools that are widely used in the precision machining of various parts.However,these abrasives cannot satisfy the machining requirements of difficult-to-machine materials with high hardness,high strength,and strong wearing resistance.Although superhard abrasives can machine the above-mentioned materials,their dressing and manufacturing costs are high.By contrast,ceramic corundum abrasives fabricated by sol–gel method is a costeffective product between conventional and superhard abrasives.Ceramic corundum abrasives exhibit self-sharpening and high toughness.In this review,the optimization methods of ceramic corundum abrasive properties are introduced from three aspects:precursor synthesis,particle shaping,and sintering.Firstly,the functional mechanism of seeds and additives on the microstructural and mechanical properties of abrasives is analyzed.Specifically,seeds can reduce the phase transition temperature and improve fracture toughness.The grain size and uniformly dense structure can be controlled by applying an appropriate amount of multicomponent additives.Then,the urgent need of engineering application and machinability of special shape ceramic corundum abrasives is reviewed,and three methods of abrasive shaping are summarized.The micromold replication technique is highly advanced and can be used to prepare functional abrasives.Additionally,the influence of a new sintering method,namely,two-step sintering technique,on the microstructural and mechanical performance of ceramic corundum abrasives is summarized.Finally,the challenge and developmental trend of the optimization of ceramic corundum abrasives are prospected.

Dielectric and ferroelectric properties of CuO-doped lead magnesium niobate-based relaxor ferroelectric ceramics

In this work,we report the dielectric and ferroelectric properties of CuO-doped(1-x)[0.5573Pb(Mg_(1/3)Nb_(2/3))O_(3)-0.4427PbTiO_(3)]-xBa(Zn_(1/3)Nb_(2/3))_(3)(PMNT-xBZN)relaxor ferrielectric ceramic samples with x=0.1725,0.1925,02125 and 0.2325,which were fabricated by a conventional solid-state reaction method.By introducing the CuO into PMNT-xBZN,the sintering temperature of this system is drastically lowered from 1280℃to 1120℃.The second pyrochlore phase,which is often generated during sintering at high temperature,is also inhibited.Meanwhile,broad dielectric peaks with strong dielectric relaxation characteristics are observed from
150℃to 100℃.Slim and slanted P-E hysteresis loops and purely electrostrictive strains with V-shape are obtained simultaneously in studied compositions from 30℃to 150℃.These results suggest that CuO could effectively lower the sintering temperature while maintaining the dielectric and ferroelectric properties of PMNT-xBZN relaxor ferroelectric ceramics.