Dilatometric analysis of sintering lithium-titanium-zinc ferrite with ZrO2 additive

Sintering of multicomponent lithium ferrite of the chemical composition Li 0.65 Fe 1.6 Ti 0.5 Zn 0.2 Mn 0.05 O 4 with the addition of ZrO 2 was studied using dilatometric and kinetic analyses. The LiTiZn ferrite was synthesized by solid state reaction from Fe 2 O 3 , Li 2 CO 3 , TiO 2 , ZnO, and MnO 2 high-purity powders, and then doped with zirconia nanopowder (0.5, 1 and 2 mass%). The ZrO 2 was prepared by sol–gel technique. It was found that small concentration of ZrO 2 additives (up to 1 mass%) increase the bulk density of ferrite. An increase in the concentration of ZrO 2 additive to 2 mass% causes deterioration of ferrite compaction. Shrinkage curves were used to perform the kinetic analysis based on mathematical modeling to find the parameters of ferrite sintering. The kinetic analysis showed that the diffusion models are suitable for mathematical determination of the kinetic patterns of ferrite sintering. The estimated values of the kinetic parameters can be used to improve the technological process of sintering of multicomponent ferrite materials doped with zirconia.