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Effect of Fabrication Methods, Second Phase Reinforcement and Sintering

Aid on densification Behavior Alumina Ceramic: A Review

Urvashi, Syed, Vishal, Vivek, Priyanka Singh.

JSS Academy of Technical Education, Noida 201301, India.

Abstract: Alumina is widely used ceramic and used for many industrial applications. Its brittle
nature , hinders its application in many cases. The toughness of alumina can be improved by
using effective processing method, addition of ductile phase/ ceramic phase in ceramic matrix.
Main challenges are involved in synthesis of these materials which require advanced processing
techniques. These challenges can be either due to the characteristic of reinforcing phase or
limited processing techniques.

This paper is aimed in reviewing the fabrication methods, sintering aid, strengthening
mechanism and mechanical properties reported by various investigators.

Keywords: Composite, Reinforcement, Sintering aid,

1.Introduction

Currently, the use of composite materials has increased in various areas of science and
technology due to their special physical & mechanical properties. When two materials are
combined, they create a material which is specialized to do a certain job like they become
stronger, lighter and resistant to electricity. They can also improve strength and stiffness to
weight ratio. The reason for their use over traditional materials is because they improve the
properties of their base materials and are applicable in many areas[1].

In this review paper, study on alumina ceramic is done[2]. Extensive review on flaw
minimization by the incorporation of various 2nd phase into it.
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Alumina ceramic (aluminium oxide or Al2O3) is a technical ceramic material with an excellent
electrical insulator. Additionally, it represents remarkable properties such as low density
combined with high hardness, high strength to weight ratio, thermal and chemical stability,
extremely resistant to wear and corrosion, good electrical resistant, high mechanical strength,
and low dielectric constant, etc.[3]. Alumina components are used in a wide range of
applications such as electrical and electronics insulators, pump components, automotive sensors,
aerospace and military industries, semiconductor components and many more. However, despite
its various excellent properties and potentials, its low fracture toughness limits its applications as
cracks readily propagates in ceramics causing them to fail when they are in service. By facing
this situation many researchers formulate and processed various methods aiming to improve the
fracture toughness and other mechanical and physical properties of alumina[4]. For instance, in
2008” The international journal of applied ceramic technology” have done the research on
fracture toughness enhancement for alumina systems in which they found that factors like
powder processing routes, sintering temperature, sintering rate and time, grain boundary
chemistry and so on govern the evolution of desired properties and gives amendable results[5].

It has been also determined that there is a strong influence on the mechanical properties of
resulting composites when ductile metals added into it as a reinforcement. For instance, in 2015
A Journal “Ceramic Matrix Composites Reinforced with Metal Nanoparticles “have done a
project which describes the formation of Al2O3-Ag or Al2O3-Ti nanocomposites via high-
energy planetary milling combined with pressure less sintering. The conclusion of this project
shows the Observations of microstructure of sintered samples by electron microscopy, illustrate
dense composite materials with a homogeneous sharing of the metal in the alumina-matrix. The
microstructure of the composites with silver is much finer than the microstructure of the
composites with titanium. Also, the fracture toughness of the Al2O3 was improved up to 233%
with the reinforcement of Ti nanoparticles, while the fracture toughness of the Al2O3 was
improved up to 333% with the reinforcement of Ag nanoparticles in the ceramic matrix[6].

In this review paper, the effect of the addition of 2nd phase (reinforcement) on alumina matrix
and effective processing method to enhance the mechanical properties are studied[7][8][9][10].
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2. Processing Methods

Sintering is a heat treatment process in which a huge quantity of distributed particles is used to a
sufficiently high temperature and pressure to bind the distributed particle in a solid pellet form.
The amount of heat and pressure are used during the sintering process is always less than the
material's melting point[11].

The purpose of sintering is to provide strength and hardness to the material. During the sintering
process the temperature of the constituent’s particle must be below the melting point.

2.1Types of Sintering Process:

 Ceramic sintering

 Sintering of metallic powders

 Plastics sintering

 Liquid Phase sintering

 Electric Current Assisted sintering spark plasma sintering

Electro sinter forging

 Pressure less sintering

 Microwave sintering

There are various traditional processing techniques include hot isostatic pressing, mould casting,
and sintering in conventional ovens but as ceramics require very high processing temperatures
compared to metals and polymers, these processes tend to be very energy intensive and result in
higher production costs to the manufacturers. Therefore, new technologies known as
nonconventional sintering techniques, such as microwave technology, are being developed in
order to reduce energy consumption, while maintaining or improving the characteristics of the
resulting ceramic materials. This innovative technology aims at helping industrial sectors by
lowering their production costs and, at the same time, it is environmentally friendly.
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2.1.1Microwave Sintering:

Microwave sintering process is a newly ceramics processing technology. It is totally different

with the conventional heating process because of the heat transfer mechanism. In microwave
sintering, energy is supplied by electromagnetic field directly throughout the material.

In the sintering process it’s involve the consolidation of the ceramic powder and fabricate the
“Green” compact at a dwell temperature below its melting point temperature.

In this process the particles diffuse the neighboring powder particles, improves the density of the
material, its microstructure and mechanical property of the material. During sintering, the
ceramic particles join and the porosity, caused by compacting the particles, is gradually
reduced[12][13].

Figure1: The surface of an Al2O3 ceramic during microwave sintering

[https://www.corrosionpedia.com/definition/6337/sintering]
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3. Sintering Aid

3.1 Effect of Sintering Aid on ceramic Densification:

Sintering Aid is used to lower the sintering temperature and also to remove the inhomogeneities
in a material. Because sometimes it is not possible to reach the required temperature of the given
metal ceramic to avoid this issue, and we also see that at high temperature there is high grain
growth occur therefore to remove this issue, sintering aid is used.[14]

After extensive review, MgO is found to be the best aid for ceramics to achieve the required
temperature and to reduce the porosity and inhomogeneities.

MgO deceases the Grain Boundary mobility with the help of a unique mechanism called Solid
Solution Pinning mechanism.

 MgO decreases the pore boundary tendency for separation.

 It increases the densification rate by 3 times and also the grain boundary rate by a factor
of 2.5
 It also increases the surface diffusivity inside the material.
 It is a good Microstructure stabilizer agent.

Overall, it shows that MgO is a unique sintering aid and also it performs multiple roles for the
Al2O3 ceramic. The bulk density, apparent porosity measurement and microstructure
observations were used to evaluate the influence of the additive on the sintering properties for
the alumina structure with different particle sizes. Based on the observation from various studies
it has been carried out that the smaller particles size led to the dense and lower porosity value of
the final structure formation. In fact both the densification and reduction of porosity can be
accelerated with the addition of small amount of sintering aid, MgO [15][16].
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a. b.

Figure 2: Microstructure development of (a) 0.25% MgO undoped alumina and (b)
0.25% MgO doped alumina with particle size 25µm
[https://ceramics.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9780470320402.ch44]

Figure 3: Microstructure development of (a) 0.25% MgO undoped alumina and (b) 0.25% MgO
doped alumina with particle size 90µm
[https://www.mri.psu.edu/sites/default/files/file_attach/095.pdf]
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4. Second Phase Reinforcement

4.1 Effect of addition of second phase reinforcement (ductile metal) on densification of

alumina ceramic:

Alumina forms composites with other materials ranging from metals, intermetallic, to ceramics.
The starting materials for composites are carefully selected such that even if a reaction occurs
between them, at least two phases must be distinct in the material, and the interaction of these
phases in the matrix would not hinder the activation of toughening and strengthening in the
material.

Metallic phases are usually ductile. As such, plastic deformation can be activated when an
advancing crack impinges on a metallic particle in the matrix. The energy absorbed for plastic
deformation makes energy unavailable for crack extension. In addition, the deformed particles
could bridge the faces of the crack wake, thereby exerting closure stresses, reducing the effect of
the stress intensity at the crack tip. The ductile molybdenum particle bridging the surfaces of the
crack in an Al–Mo composite. The improvement achievable the reinforced composites is
governed by the mechanical properties of the ductile material, ligament diameter, volume
fraction of the components, interface properties, and the reactivity

5. Mechanical properties:

The densification behavior, microstructure and mechanical properties of high-purity Al2O3 after
reinforcement was investigated. The batches were uniaxially pressed at 220 MPa into discs and
rectangular bars and pressure less-sintered at temperature ranging between 1500 and 1650 C for
1 h. The phase composition of the sintered bodies was followed up with an x-ray diffractometer,
while their microstructure was characterized with a scanning electron microscope. The
mechanical properties in terms of Vickers hardness (HV1), three-point bending strength and
fracture toughness were also measured. The results showed that the reinforcement of alumina
accelerated the densification parameters, toughened the obtained bodies. The maximum values
for the mechanical properties of the alumina ceramics were 34.4, 35.5 and 29.5 % for bending
strength, fracture toughness and Vickers hardness respectively.
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6. Conclusion

In this paper effort has been made to understand the effective processing method to fully densify
the ceramic at less sintering temperature and time. Also, addition of ductile phase/ ceramic phase
in ceramic matrix, effect of sintering aid and various mechanical properties have been studied.
Microwave sintering has found to be most advanced technique for fabrication which restricts the
grain growth and densify the material at low temperature and time. This method of fabrication is
energy efficient and also environment friendly. Mechanical behavior of ceramic is presented
which showed that hardness and toughness is increased by secondary phase addition. There is
need of exclusive study and development of better fabrication techniques for improving the
toughness of composite without compromising other properties so that it can be used for wide
range of applications.

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