Flash sintering in well-dispersed insulator-ionic conductor composites: The case of diphasic alumina-zirconia (Al2O3-3YSZ) system

摘要

Much effort is being directed to understand the physics behind field-assisted flash sintering development in materials. This novel technique has revealed effective to sinter green compacts from dissimilar compounds in mere seconds at relatively low furnace temperatures. This work was aimed at exploring incidence of this phenomenon in alumina-zirconia composites in which, different from ion-conducting zirconia, insulating alumina did not flash. Sinterability of such mixtures in the form of a flash event revealed dependent on establishment of zirconia percolating paths through the composite, indicating that showing a reasonable conductivity is undeniably a necessary condition for flash sintering development in materials. (C) 2019 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.