Copper is an interesting material for printed electronics inks because, for example, of its good conductivity and lower raw material price compared to silver. However, post-processing Cu inks is challenging because of non-conductive copper oxide. In this work, inkjet-printed Cu nanoparticle structures were sintered on a polyimide substrate with a continuous-wave 808-nm diode laser. Laser sinter...

The sintering of hardmetal in the solid state is studied. The influence of the WC particle size on the sintering kinetics, the role of the binder phase in the densification process and how sintering depends on the heating conditions are investigated. It is observed that alloys with different WC particle size show quite different structural evolution during sintering, although the densification ...

The effects of sintering profiles on the densification behaviour of synthesized nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite (HA) powder were investigated in terms of phase stability and mechanical properties. A wet chemical precipitation method was successfully employed to synthesize a high purity and single phase HA powder. Green HA compacts were prepared and subjected to sintering in air atmosphere over a...

An investigation of the photoluminescent properties and crystalline morphology of blue emitting LiBa1-xPO4:xTm3+ phosphors with various concentrations (x = 0.005-0.030) of Tm3+ ions were synthesized by microwave sintering. For comparison, the LiBa1-xPO4:xTm3+ powders sintered at the same sintering condition but in a conventional furnace were also investigated. LiBaPO₄ without second phase was f...

The potential of a combination between single-step sintering and ZrO2 additive as a simple ceramic fabrication method to obtain dental porcelain-based ceramic-nanocomposites with good mechanical properties was demonstrated. Influences of sintering condition on phase formation, densification, microstructure and mechanical properties of these porcelain ceramics were examined via XRD, SEM-EDX and ...

Prealloyed powders usually melt over a range of temperatures. This feature is useful in performing supersolidus liquid phase sintering, where liquid forms inside the particles when heated just over the solidus temperature. Densification by supersolidus liquid phase sintering is sensitive to time-temperatures. A major difficulty arises when a narrow temperature range exists between densification...

We wrote two computer programs, 3D and BUMP, to interpret transmission electron microscope (TEM) micrographs made during a study of the initial stage sintering of ultrafine alumina particles (UFP’s, 20–50 nm in diameter). The first simulated the 3D geometric relationships of particles, from which we concluded that surface diffusion was the predominant sintering mechanism because no shrinkage oc...

Silicon nitride foams were prepared by direct foaming and subsequent rapid sintering at 1600 °C. The intense thermal radiation generated under the pressureless spark plasma sintering condition facilitated necking of Si3N4 grains. The prepared foams possessed a porosity of ∼80 vol% and a compressive strength of ∼10 MPa, which required only ∼30 min for the entire sintering processes. Rapid growth...

A two-stage sintering practice was applied to W­3.99Ni­1.71Fe (mass%) to control its microstructural evolution and, accordingly, mechanical properties under high strain rates. Unlike the traditional one-stage liquid phase sintering, the alloy was first solid-state-sintered to close to full densification, and then liquid-phase-sintered by induction heating where the cooling rate was fast. With t...

The effects of microwave sintering on the sintering behaviour, microstructure and dielectric properties of Bi2O3doped (Ba0.6Sr0.4)(Ti0.94Cu0.06)O3 (BSTC) ceramics were investigated. The microstructure and dielectric properties of a BSTC ceramic were also studied given different amounts of Bi2O3 doping. Microwave heating with sintering temperatures below 1000 ̊C significantly improves the densifi...