Abstract
The authors have studied the sintering kinetics of a-Nb205 by means of a comparative analysis under isothermal and non-isothermal conditions. It was demonstrated that there exists non-linear dependence between the effective diffusion coefficients and the reciprocal temperature value.
The change in the relative linear shrinkage rate
∂(ΔL/Lo)T/∂√τ
follows the law of distribution, very close to the normal distribution, the maximum of which is the result of the change in the material structure state due to the change in the disperse system "activity". As the point defect concentration is the function of the oxygen partial pressure and temperature, characterized by both the ever-decreasing and increasing functions, it has been demonstrated that the abrupt increase of the relative linear shrinkage rate is the result of the existence of some other structure defects.
The qualitative analysis of the sintering process carried out from aspect of the subatom electronic configuration theory indicates that the high temperature of the sintering of a-Nb2O5 is the result of the greats tatistic weight of the atoms with stable configuration of niobium.
