A densification temperature of a ceramic material by microwave sintering is quite lower than the temperature by conventional sintering. However, the ceramic material is self-heated by electromagnetic energy during the microwave sintering processing, so that possibility of temperature measuring error is considerably high. Then it is difficult to prove that the densification temperature by microwave sintering is lower than the temperature by conventional sintering.
There is a problem of sintering Si
3N
4 that sintering temperature is higher than decomposition temperature in atmospheric pressure of N
2 gas, and a specimen can not be high density if a powder bed is not used. The decomposition rate becomes fast at the densification temperature. Furthermore, sintering density is lowered with the rise of sintering temperature since the decomposition rate becomes faster. Because of that, Si
3N
4 is sintered in high pressure N
2 gas, or in atmospheric pressure of N
2 gas with powder bed.
When a Si
3N
4 specimen which included 5 w% Al
2O
3 and 5 w% Y
2O
3 as sintering aids, was sintered at 1700°C by conventional heating in atmospheric pressure of N
2 gas without powder bed, sintering density reached 88%. And the density is lowered when the heating temperature was higher than 1700°C. The density more than 88% was not obtained even the sintering temperature was higher.
On the other hand, when the specimen was sintered by microwave treating in atmospheric pressure of N
2 gas at 1600V without powder bed, the sintering density was 98.1% and 98.7% at 1650°C and reached 99.0% at 1700°C.
This shows clearly that the densification temperature by microwave sintering is lower than decomposition temperature. In other words, this shows that the densification temperature by microwave sintering is lower than the temperature by conventional sintering.
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