In this article, we report a new route to synthesize diamond by converting "solid" carbon nanofibers with a Spark Plasma Sintering system under low temperature and pressure (even at atmospheric pressure). Well-crystallized diamond crystals are obtained at the tips of the carbon nanofibers after sintering at 1500 °C and atmospheric pressure. Combining with scanning electron microscopy, transmiss...

A new ultra-rapid process of flash spark plasma sintering is developed. The idea of flash spark plasma sintering (or flash hot pressing - FHP) stems from the conducted theoretical analysis of the role of thermal runaway phenomena for material processing by flash sintering. The major purpose of the present study is to theoretically analyze the thermal runaway nature of flash sintering and to exp...

Thermal effects are important considerations at the initial stage in spark plasma sintering of non-conductive Al2O3 powders. The generalized thermo-elastic theory is introduced to describe the influence of the heat transport and thermal focusing caused by thermal wave propagation within a constrained space and transient time. Simulations show that low sintering temperature can realize high loca...

spark plasma sintering (sps) method, as plasma activated sintering, is a method applicable for rapid sintering of metals and ceramics. owing to the advantage of rapid heating, the alumina ceramics obtained by sps have a grain size and density comparable to those of hot pressed ones. the increase of densification rate may be related to some difference in ion transport characteristics. this study...

Transparent polycrystalline spinel ceramic was fabricated without any sintering aids by spark plasma sintering method of a mixture of Al2O3 and MgO powders for only 10min soak at 1250°C. Densification, microstructure and optical transparency of spinel were examined. The spinel exhibits an in-line transmission of 55% for a visible-wavelength of 470nm and high hardness value of 2040 HV.

In situ Al2024- Mg2Si composite was fabricated by spark plasma sintering (SPS) of reactive powder. Reactive powder was obtained from mechanical alloying (MA) of elemental powders. Clad layers of in situ composite were fabricated on Al substrates by spark plasma sintering (SPS). Structural evolution during MA process and after SPS was investigated by X-ray diffractometery (XRD). Scanning electro...

A PM approach is investigated in the context of extremely fine low temperature bainitic steels with a reasonable combination of ultimate tensile strength and uniform elongation. The strategy consists of three steps. First, ball milling is used for mechanical alloying and to create a large density of interfaces prior to sintering. In the second step, spark plasma sintering is used as a rapid con...

Functionally graded materials (FGM) in the form of layered structure consisting of yttria stabilized zirconia (8 mol% Y2O3) and nickel were fabricated by spark plasma sintering procedure. The relative density, linear shrinkage and Vickers hardness of each layer of graded materials were measured. The microstructure and the composition of these components were studied. The results obtained show t...