Rapid formation of α-sialon during spark plasma sintering: Its origin and implications

Spark plasma sintering: A powerful tool to develop new silicon nitride-based materials

“…[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] One of the first hypothesis was the local generation of a plasma between particles when current is applied, which would cause the particle surface cleaning and then the improvement of the mass transport. 16 This hypothesis has been particularly controversial because the lack of experimental evidence of such plasma formation.…”

“…20 This mechanism may be considered as an enhanced solution-precipitation process involving a rapid grain growth. On the other hand, Salamon et al 21 questioned the influence of electric field on ␣-phase formation in Sialon materials, claiming that the temperature was the main influence.…”

“…The increased sintering rate and grain coarsening also observed in the solution-precipitation stage can be attributed to the dynamic ripening mechanism. 21 …”

Low temperature sintering of sub-micrometer scale SiC using spark plasma sintering

“…Actual specimen temperature was reported to be 4080°C higher than those measured by a pyrometer during SPS. 21) Also, grain boundary sliding was reported to be promoted during SPS. 22) However, densification of sub-micrometer scale SiC has not been attained below 1650°C after SPS when using other types of additives.…”

Wear properties of α- and α/β-SiAlON ceramics obtained by gas pressure sintering and spark plasma sintering

“…The SPS technique has been widely used to produce a wide range of ceramics, including oxides [22][23][24] and nitrides. [23][24][25][26][27] In a recent account of the wear properties of yttrium based SiAlON ceramics, it was shown that wear behaviour depends significantly on the microstructure and chemical stability of the materials. 16 In this work, two different ␣-and ␣/␤-SiAlON compositions, doped with Y 2 O 3 or Nd 2 O 3 , were sintered using the gas pressure sintering and the spark plasma sintering processes.…”