title: Protocol for Ultralow-Temperature Ceramic Sintering: An Integration of Nanotechnology and the Cold Sintering Process.
abstract: The sintering process is an essential step in taking particulate materials into dense ceramic materials. Although a number of sintering techniques have emerged over the past few years, the sintering process is still performed at high temperatures. Here we establish a protocol to achieve dense ceramic solids at extremely low temperatures (<200 °C) via integrating the particle nanotechnology into the recently developed cold sintering process (CSP). The sintering path has been appropriately tailored via effectively utilizing the large surface-to-volume ratio of nanoparticles. BaTiO3ceramics have been used for the illustration, given its importance in extensive electronic device applications, as well as its scientific interest, being a model material for many of the ferroelectric materials. Together with detailed experimental studies, the trends are also analyzed with a fundamental thermodynamic consideration. Such an impactful technique could have widespread application prospects in a wide variety of materials and would also provide a clear roadmap to guide future studies on ultralow-temperature ceramic sintering, ceramic materials related integration, and sustainable manufacturing practices.
authors.affiliation: Materials Research Institute, Material Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, United States.
authors.forename: Hanzheng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Materials Research Institute, Material Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, United States.
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.affiliation: Materials Research Institute, Material Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, United States.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Materials Research Institute, Material Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, United States.
authors.forename: Clive A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Randall
keywords: barium titanate nanoparticles; cold sintering process; dense ceramics; sintering; thermodynamics