Flash-Sinterforging of Nanograin Zirconia: Field Assisted Sintering and Superplasticity

We report on the influence of a uniaxial applied stress on flash‐sintering and field assisted superplastic behavior of cylindrical powder preforms of 3 mol% tetragonal‐stabilized zirconia. The experiments use the sinterforging method, where, in addition to pressure, a dc electrical field is applied by metal electrodes sandwiched between the push‐rods and the specimen. The axial and radial strains in the experiment provide simultaneous measurement of the time‐dependent densification and shear strains. Large effects of the electric field on sintering and superplasticity are observed. We see flash‐sintering which is characterized by a threshold level of temperature and electric field. With higher applied fields, the sample sinters at a lower furnace temperature. Surprisingly, the applied stress further lowers this critical temperature: a sample, which sinters at 915°C under a stress of 1.5 MPa, densifies at only 850°C when the stress is raised to 12 MPa. This stress induced reduction in sintering temperature maybe related to the additional electrical fields generated within the specimen by the electro‐chemo‐mechanical mechanism described by Pannikkat and Raj [Acta Mater., 47 (1999) 3423]. Remarkably, we also show that the sample deforms in pure shear to 30% strain in just a few seconds at anomalously low temperatures. The specimen temperature was measured with a pyrometer, during the flash sintering, as a check on Joule heating. A reading of 1000°C–1100°C was obtained, up to 200° above the furnace temperature. This temperature is still too low to explain the sintering in just a few seconds. It is suggested that the electric field can nucleate a defect avalanche that enhances diffusion kinetics not by changing the activation energy but by increasing the pre‐exponential factor for the diffusion coefficient, noting that the pre‐exponential factor depends on concentration of defects, and not upon their mobility.