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Why does solid-state sintering leave no residual glass at grain boundaries?
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advanced ceramics
Steps in doctor blading, a tape-casting process employed in the production of ceramic films. Ceramic powder and solvent are mixed to form a slurry, which is treated with various additives and binders, homogenized, and then pumped directly to a tape-casting machine. There the slurry is continuously cast onto the surface of a moving carrier film. The edge of a smooth knife, generally called a doctor blade, spreads the slurry onto the carrier film at a specified thickness, thereby generating a flexible tape. Heat lamps gently evaporate the solvent, and the dry tape is peeled away from the carrier film and rolled onto a take-up reel for additional processing.
Solid-state sintering leaves no residual glass at grain boundaries because the process does not rely on the particle-dissolving action of glassy liquids to bond the material together.1
In solid-state sintering, particles are bonded through the diffusion of matter from adjacent particles into "neck" regions under the influence of heat and pressure. Because no glassy phase is required to facilitate this bonding, there is no residual glass left behind that would otherwise degrade the material's properties, such as strength or conductivity, particularly at elevated temperatures.1