Nagoya University
The development of a high-speed sintering method that can shorten the entire sintering time while guaranteeing the mechanical properties is very attractive as a sintering process for structural ceramic polycrystals. For this purpose, a sintering protocol that combines shrinkagerate-controlled flash sintering, which controls the shrinkage rate to be constant with the use of an electric field, and a rapid furnace ramp is applied to 3-mol% Y2O3-doped ZrO2 (3YSZ). As a result, a 3YSZ sintered polycrystal with a relative density more than about 99.5% could be successfully fabricated within 30 min as the entire sintering time, which includes the furnaceheating regime. The sintered 3YSZ polycrystal is confirmed to exhibit a Vickers hardness of approximately 1290 HV and a fracture toughness (KIC) of approximately 5.2 MPam1/2, which are similar values to those obtained from a typical thermally sintered 3YSZ polycrystal.
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