Effects of the homogeneity of particle coordination on solid-state sintering of transparent alumina

A quantitative assessment of the homogeneity of particle coordination in green bodies is achieved by addressing pore structures. Avoiding a coarser tail of the pore size distribution is important but insufficient for optimum sintering. Instead, the steepest slope of the main body of the distribution is responsible for a maximum density at lowest temperature, and further progress is enabled by minimizing interparticle spacing (the average pore size). Ranking different technologies with different associated pore size distributions, the same correlation holds for the impact of homogeneity on (i) sintering densification as (ii) for the onset of intense grain growth during the final sintering stage. For all of the investigated processing approaches the pore size distributions are observed to remain constant through the initial and intermediate states of sintering.