The Effect of Different Sintering Strategies on Properties of YSZ Reinforced Graphene Composites

Abstract

Partial, single and double step sintering has been carried out to densify YSZ reinforced 1 wt. % graphene composites at temperature as low as 40% of the homologous temperature. The influence of sintering conditions on resulting density, microstructure, porosity and contact angles were determined. The microstructure of the composites showed that amount of micro pores was reduced upon double step sintering and infiltrating with PDC resin. This study has improved upon existing sintering methods resulting in the use of low temperature for sintering ceramics yet achieving relative density >95% with porosity as low as 0.15 using double step sintering.