Water‐Mediated Surface Diffusion Mechanism Enables the Cold Sintering Process: A Combined Computational and Experimental Study
Abstract
The cold sintering process (CSP) densifies ceramics at much lower temperatures than conventional sintering processes. Several ceramics and composite systems have been successfully densified under cold sintering. For the grain growth kinetics of zinc oxide, reduced activation energies are shown, and yet the mechanism behind this growth is unknown. Herein, we investigate these mechanisms in more detail with experiments and ReaxFF molecular dynamics simulations. We investigated the recrystallization of zinc cations under various acidic conditions and found that their adsorption to the surface can be a rate‐limiting factor for cold sintering. Our studies show that surface hydroxylation in CSP does not inhibit crystallization; in contrast, by creating a surface complex, it creates an orders of magnitude acceleration in surface diffusion, and in turn, accelerates recrystallization.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jul 30, 2019
- Source ID
- 10.1002/anie.201904738
Entities
People
- Adri van Duin
- Clive A. Randall
- Jing Guo
- Mert Y Sengul
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- National Science Foundation
- Pennsylvania State University
- United States Department of Energy
- Xi'an Jiaotong University