TY - JOUR
T1 - Hydroflux-assisted densification
T2 - applying flux crystal growth techniques to cold sintering
AU - Lowum, Sarah
AU - Floyd, Richard
AU - Maria, Jon Paul
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge Professor Paul Maggard of North Carolina State University for his helpful suggestions to draw comparisons between cold sintering processes and flux crystal growth processes. The authors would also like to thank members of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences’ Microscopy and Cytometry Facility at the Pennsylvania State University for use of their equipment. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation, as part of the Center for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics under Grant Nos. IIP-1841453 and IIP-1841466. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under Grant No. DGE1255832. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2020/9/1
Y1 - 2020/9/1
N2 - Hydroflux-assisted densification (HAD) is introduced as a method for low-temperature ceramic densification. HAD expands upon the cold sintering process, using an inorganic “hydroflux” secondary mass transport phase as opposed to the aqueous acidic, basic, or salt solutions that have been reported previously. Hydrofluxes combine ionic salts with sparing quantities of water to depress their melting points into the cold sintering range. The substantial solubility of many oxides in these hydrofluxes makes them appealing transport phases for an expanded cold-sinterable materials spectrum. This paper focuses on a hydroflux transport phase containing a eutectic mixture of NaOH and KOH (called “NaK”) for which particular nuances and properties are discussed. We demonstrate HAD in the ZnO system, highlighting the importance and impact of processing variables such as pressure, transport phase quantity, and water content. Additionally, we show densification of the oxide binaries Bi2O3, WO3, CuO, and MnO, and the functional ternaries Bi2WO6 and KxNa1-xNbO3 in the 200–300 °C range. This entire set is challenging to cold sinter using aqueous transport phases.
AB - Hydroflux-assisted densification (HAD) is introduced as a method for low-temperature ceramic densification. HAD expands upon the cold sintering process, using an inorganic “hydroflux” secondary mass transport phase as opposed to the aqueous acidic, basic, or salt solutions that have been reported previously. Hydrofluxes combine ionic salts with sparing quantities of water to depress their melting points into the cold sintering range. The substantial solubility of many oxides in these hydrofluxes makes them appealing transport phases for an expanded cold-sinterable materials spectrum. This paper focuses on a hydroflux transport phase containing a eutectic mixture of NaOH and KOH (called “NaK”) for which particular nuances and properties are discussed. We demonstrate HAD in the ZnO system, highlighting the importance and impact of processing variables such as pressure, transport phase quantity, and water content. Additionally, we show densification of the oxide binaries Bi2O3, WO3, CuO, and MnO, and the functional ternaries Bi2WO6 and KxNa1-xNbO3 in the 200–300 °C range. This entire set is challenging to cold sinter using aqueous transport phases.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85086671414&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85086671414&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10853-020-04926-7
DO - 10.1007/s10853-020-04926-7
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85086671414
SN - 0022-2461
VL - 55
SP - 12747
EP - 12760
JO - Journal of Materials Science
JF - Journal of Materials Science
IS - 27
ER -