Oxygen contamination on the surface of ZrB2 powders and its removal

Surface oxygen impurities have been well proved to accelerate the ceramic particle coarsening during sintering, therefore impede the densification of non-oxide ceramics. However, the characteristic of these impurities is still poorly understood. In this work, several state-of-the-art technologies on microscopy and microanalysis techniques were combined to investigate the bonding character, morphology and composition of oxygen contamination on ZrB2 powders. The assemblage of light elements, i.e. O, C, N, B and Si on the surface and in the lattice of the ZrB2 powders was thoroughly analyzed and compared before and after its removal upon heating. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Acta Materialia Inc.