Radiation Enhanced Sintering of Ceramics

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This project deals with radiation enhanced sintering of ceramics. The approach is to neutron irradiate the ceramic powders to increase the defect concentration which in turn would lead to radiation enhanced diffusion (RED). Experiments will be conducted on the as received and irradiated AlN and Al2O3 to measure radiation enhanced sintering (RES) from shrinkage rates and microstructural observations, and to study the underlying basic phenomenon of RED using the radiotracer sectioning technique. The results will be analyzed to identify the parameters more critical to RED and RES. Sintering is the critical step in the processing of ceramic materials. The strength and toughness of ceramics depend on this. The Principal Investigator proposes a novel method of improving the sintering of pure covalent ceramics (e.g., nitrides and carbides).