Investigation of Electrochemical, Optical and Thermal Effects during Flash Sintering of 8YSZ.

This paper reports the electrochemical, optical and thermal effects occurring during flash sintering of 8 mol % yttria-stabilized zirconia (8YSZ). In-situ observations of polycrystalline and single crystal specimens revealed electrochemical blackening/darkening during an incubation period prior to flash sintering. The phenomenon is induced by cathodic partial reduction under DC fields.

Evidence for non-thermal microwave effects using single and multimode hybrid conventional/microwave systems.

Clear evidence for the microwave effect has been observed during experiments in which a variety of materials have been heated using experimental systems that allowed both conventional and conventional-microwave hybrid heating. A hybrid single mode cavity has been used to investigate the microwave effect during phase changes in silver iodide, barium titanate and benzil, whilst a hybrid multimode cavity has been used to investigate the microwave effect during sintering and annealing of a range of ceramic materials with different dielectric properties. Although evidence for the microwave effect was not found in every case, where it was found the results could not be explained purely in terms of temperature gradients within the materials.