The European Ceramic Society
Laboratory sheet
Portugal
International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory
INL is involved in the development of ceramic materials for flash-sintering
Director :
Research topics :
- As the demand for developing environmentally friendly and energy efficient technologies increases, it is critical to devise processes for the production of materials which match those demands at lower costs. In this context, flash sintering (FS) can overcome conventional sintering issues, leading to a reduction of the processing time from days/hours to min/seconds, while decreasing the operation temperatures. Among the candidate materials suitable for flash-sintering, this project focuses on yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ), because it is widely used for fuel cells, one of energy technologies that is critical for public transportation and the automotive industry. In this work, nanoparticles of YSZ will be deposited in a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) grid, to simulate in real time the process of flash-sintering. In particular, the nanoparticles will be subjected to different electric fields and processing temperatures, while the mechanisms can be monitored in real time, inside an advanced TEM.
- Potassium-Sodium-Niobate (KNN) is getting increasing importance as lead-free piezoelectric functional material. However, monophasic dense KNN products are yet difficult to obtain and this project proposes a new method to densify materials abruptly above a threshold condition, FLASH sintering (FS), using a combination of temperature and electrical field directly applied to the specimen. A clear understanding of the phenomena does not exist yet. The present work aims to exploit FS and study the science behind it with the following objectives: (i) To investigate the dependence of FS on KNN dimensionality (bulk, films, nanoparticles) (ii) To identify the densification mechanisms in KNN FS and effects of electrical field (iii) To develop alternative sintering techniques for functional oxides aiming to decrease the thermal budget (iv) To prove the concept for low temperature sintering of KNN thin films on flexible substrates, never explored by FS, and extend it to other lead free oxides.
Contact information:
Paulo Ferreira
Ph: +351 253 140 112
Email: paulo.ferreira@inl.int
Leonard Francis
Ph: +351 253 140 112
Email: Leonard.Francis@inl.int
Exceptional facilities :
- Center for Advanced Electron Microscopy, Imaging and Spectroscopy is a core multi-user facility that features cutting-edge instrumentation, techniques and expertise required for the characterization of samples in the physical and life sciences.
- The INL cleanroom facility offers micro- and nanofabrication solutions on substrates from 200-mm-diameter wafers down to samples below 10 mm in size, to both internal and external users, some of which are performed in multi-project wafer (MPW) formats.
- The INL Nanophotonics & Bioimaging open access user facility features cutting-edge optical instrumentation and the know-how required for characterization of material and life sciences samples. The INL expert team provides knowledge in the analysis of light-matter interactions at various scales
Financial support programmes :
- European funding: yes
- Regional funding: yes
- National funding: yes
Last news
New YCN Special Issue on Open Ceramics - Young Ceramists leading the Future
The special issue will accept hitherto unpublished original results submitted both in the form of full-length scientific papers and short communications, but also review papers on the topics in the list.
Results of the 1st Bioceramics Student Speech Contest
The ECerS Bioceramics Network is delighted to announce the winners of the 1st Bioceramics Student Speech Contest, which took place online from 17 to 18 April 2024!
Information
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