skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: Flash sintering produces eutectic microstructures in Al 2 O 3 –LaPO 4 versus conventional microstructures in 8YSZ–LaPO 4
Abstract While monazite (LaPO4) does not flash sinter even at high fields of 1130 V/cm and temperatures of 1450°C, composite systems of 8YSZ–LaPO4and Al2O3–LaPO4have been found to more readily flash sinter. 8YSZ added to LaPO4greatly lowered the furnace temperature for flash to 1100°C using a field of only 250 V/cm. In these experiments,‐Al2O3alone also did not flash sinter at 1450°C even with high fields of 1130 V/cm, but composites of Al2O3–LaPO4powders flash sintered at 900‐1080 V/cm at 1450°C. Alumina–monazite (Al2O3–LaPO4) composites with compositions ranging from 25 vol% to 75 vol% Al2O3were flash sintered with current limits from 2 to 25 mA/mm2. Microstructures were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). A eutectic microstructure was observed to form in all flash sintered Al2O3–LaPO4composites. With higher power (higher current limits), eutectic structures with regular lamellar regions were found to coexist in the channeled region (where both the current and the temperature were the highest) with large hexagonal‐shaped‐Al2O3grains (up to 75 m) and large irregular LaPO4grains. With lower power (lower current limits), an irregular eutectic microstructure was dominant, and there was minimal abnormal grain growth. These results indicate that Al2O3–LaPO4is a eutectic‐forming system and the eutectic temperature was reached locally during flash sintering in regions. These eutectic microstructures with lamellar dimensions on the scale of 100 nm offer potential for improved mechanical properties.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1662791
PAR ID:
10451607
Author(s) / Creator(s):
 ;  ;  
Publisher / Repository:
Wiley-Blackwell
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Journal of the American Ceramic Society
Volume:
104
Issue:
8
ISSN:
0002-7820
Page Range / eLocation ID:
p. 3895-3909
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Abstract The hydration of the two most reactive phases of ordinary Portland cement (OPC), tricalcium silicate (C3S), and tricalcium aluminate (C3A) is successfully halted when the activity of water () falls below critical thresholds of 0.70 and 0.45, respectively. It has been established that the reduction in relative humidity (RH) and suppresses the hydration of all anhydrous phases in OPC, including less explored phases like dicalcium silicate, that is, belite (β‐C2S). However, the degree of suppression, that is, the critical threshold, for β‐C2S, standalone has yet to be established. This study utilizes isothermal microcalorimetry and X‐ray diffraction techniques to elucidate the influence ofon the hydration of‐C2S suspensions via incremental replacements of water with isopropanol (IPA). Experimentally, this study shows that with increasing IPA replacements, hydration is increasingly suppressed until eventually brought to a halt at a critical threshold of approximately 27.7% IPA on a weight basis (wt.%IPA). From thermodynamic estimations, the exact criticalthreshold and solubility product constant of‐C2S () are established as 0.913 and 10−12.68, respectively. This study enables enhanced understanding of β‐C2S reactivity and provides thermodynamic parameters during the hydration of β‐C2S‐containing cementitious systems such as OPC‐based and calcium aluminate‐based systems. 
    more » « less
  2. Abstract We report the pulsed‐laser deposition of epitaxial double‐perovskite Bi2FeCrO6(BFCO) films on the (001)‐, (110), and (111)‐oriented single‐crystal SrTiO3substrates. All of the BFCO films with various orientations show theandsuperlattice‐diffraction peaks. The intensity ratios between the‐superlattice and the main 111‐diffraction peak can be tailored by simply adjusting the laser repetition rate and substrate temperature, reaching up to 4.4%. However, both optical absorption spectra and magnetic measurements evidence that the strong superlattice peaks are not correlated with theB‐site Fe3+/Cr3+cation ordering. Instead, the epitaxial (111)‐oriented Bi2FeCrO6films show an enhanced remanent polarization of 92 μC/cm2at 10 K, much larger than the predicted values by density‐functional theory calculations. Positive‐up‐negative‐down (PUND) measurements with a time interval of 10 μs further support these observations. Therefore, our experimental results reveal that the strong superlattice peaks may come fromA‐ orB‐site cation shifts along the pseudo‐cubic [111] direction, which further enhance the ferroelectric polarization of the BFCO thin films. 
    more » « less
  3. Abstract The air‐sea exchange of oxygen (O2) is driven by changes in solubility, biological activity, and circulation. The total air‐sea exchange of O2has been shown to be closely related to the air‐sea exchange of heat on seasonal timescales, with the ratio of the seasonal flux of O2to heat varying with latitude, being higher in the extratropics and lower in the subtropics. This O2/heat ratio is both a fundamental biogeochemical property of air‐sea exchange and a convenient metric for testing earth system models. Current estimates of the O2/heat flux ratio rely on sparse observations of dissolved O2, leaving it fairly unconstrained. From a model ensemble we show that the ratio of the seasonal amplitude of two atmospheric tracers, atmospheric potential oxygen (APO) and the argon‐to‐nitrogen ratio (Ar/O2), exhibits a close relationship to the O2/heat ratio of the extratropics (40–). The amplitude ratio,/, is relatively constant within the extratropics of each hemisphere due to the zonal mixing of the atmosphere./is not sensitive to atmospheric transport, as most of the observed spatial variability in the seasonal amplitude ofAPO is compensated by similar variations in(Ar/). From the relationship between/heat and/in the model ensemble, we determine that the atmospheric observations suggest hemispherically distinct/heat flux ratios of 3.30.3 and 4.70.8 nmolbetween 40 andin the Northern and Southern Hemispheres respectively, providing a useful constraint forand heat air‐sea fluxes in earth system models and observation‐based data products. 
    more » « less
  4. Abstract Prior investigations have attempted to characterize the longitudinal variability of the column number density ratio of atomic oxygen to molecular nitrogen (O/N2) in the context of non‐migrating tides. The retrieval of thermosphericO/N2from far ultra‐violet (FUV) emissions assumes production is due to photoelectron impact excitation on O and N2. Consequently, efforts to characterize the tidal variability inO/N2have been limited by ionospheric contamination from O+ + e radiative recombination at afternoon local times (LT) around the equatorial ionization anomaly. The retrieval ofO/N2from FUV observations by the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) provides an opportunity to address this limitation. In this work, we derive modifiedO/N2datasets to delineate the response of thermospheric composition to non‐migrating tides as a function of LT in the absence of ionospheric contamination. We assess estimates of the ionospheric contribution to 135.6 nm emission intensities based on either Global Ionospheric Specification (GIS) electron density, International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model output, or observations from the Extreme Ultra‐Violet imager (EUV) onboard ICON during March and September equinox conditions in 2020. Our approach accounts for any biases between the ionospheric and airglow datasets. We found that the ICON‐FUV data set, corrected for ionospheric contamination based on GIS, uncovered a previously obscured diurnal eastward wavenumber 2 tide in a longitudinal wavenumber 3 pattern at March equinox in 2020. This finding demonstrates not only the necessity of correcting for ionospheric contamination of the FUV signals but also the utility of using GIS for the correction. 
    more » « less
  5. Abstract Raman scattering is performed on Fe3GeTe2(FGT) at temperatures from 8 to 300 K and under pressures from the ambient pressure to 9.43 GPa. Temperature‐dependent and pressure‐dependent Raman spectra are reported. The results reveal respective anomalous softening and moderate stiffening of the two Raman active modes as a result of the increase of pressure. The anomalous softening suggests anharmonic phonon dynamics and strong spin–phonon coupling. Pressure‐dependent density functional theory and phonon calculations are conducted and used to study the magnetic properties of FGT and assign the observed Raman modes,and. The calculations proved the strong spin–phonon coupling for themode. In addition, a synergistic interplay of pressure‐induced reduction of spin exchange interactions and spin–orbit coupling effect accounts for the softening of themode as pressure increases. 
    more » « less