Thermal runaway, flash sintering and asymmetrical microstructural development of ZnO and ZnO–Bi2O3 under direct currents

DC flash sintering of both pure and 0.5mol.% Bi2O3-doped ZnO at a relatively high activating field of 300V/cm has been investigated. It is demonstrated that even high-purity ZnO single crystals can “flash” at ∼870°C. In comparison, flash sintering occurs at a substantially lower onset temperature of ∼550°C in ZnO powder specimens, indicating the important roles of surfaces and/or grain boundaries. A model has been developed to forecast the thermal runaway conditions and the predictions are in excellent agreements with the observed onset flash temperatures, attesting that the flash starts as a thermal runaway in at least these ZnO based systems. Interestingly, enhanced grain growth is observed at the anode side of the pure ZnO specimens with an abrupt change in the grain sizes, indicating the occurrence of electric-potential-induced abnormal grain growth. With a large current density, the growth of aligned hexagonal single-crystalline rods toward the anode direction is evident in the ZnO powder specimen. Moreover, Bi2O3 doping defers the onset of flash sintering, which can be explained from the formation of space charges at grain boundaries, and it homogenizes the microstructure due to a liquid-phase sintering effect. The key scientific contributions of this study include the development of a model to predict the thermal runaway conditions that are coincident with the observed onset flash sintering temperatures, the clarification of how flash starts in ZnO based specimens, and the observation and explanation of diversifying phenomena of sintering and microstructural development under applied electric currents.