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1. Instrumentation for automated and quantitative low temperature compaction and sintering

   https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5094040  

   Floyd, Richard; Lowum, Sarah; Maria, Jon-Paul (May 2019, Review of Scientific Instruments)
2. Mass transport in low‐temperature ceramic sintering and printing assisted by pressure and water

   https://doi.org/10.1111/jace.20479  

   Fei, Fan; Song, Xuan (March 2025, Journal of the American Ceramic Society)

   Ceramic processing through the combined use of pressure and water offers a promising approach to achieve accelerated mass transport between ceramic particles at reduced temperatures, providing a sustainable and low‐temperature method for ceramic synthesis and three‐dimensional printing. While previous studies have explored the roles of pressure and water in the fusion and densification of ceramic particles, the underlying mechanisms, especially for micro‐sized ceramic particles, are still debated. This paper aims to propose a potential mechanism for the fusion and densification of micro‐sized ceramic particles under the effect of pressure and water. Using a multi‐phase level‐set simulation model, our results suggest that stress‐assisted fracture and dissolution of interparticle contact points can be key factors driving the densification of micro‐sized ceramic particles in the presence of pressure and water. 

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3. One-Step Plasma Jet Deposition and Self-Sintering of Gold Nanoparticle Inks on Low-Temperature Substrates

   https://doi.org/10.1109/JFLEX.2024.3399710  

   Manzi, Jacob; Varghese, Tony; Eixenberger, Josh; Prakasan, Lakshmi; Estrada, David; Subbaraman, Harish (January 2024, IEEE Journal on Flexible Electronics)

   Flexible electronics on low-temperature substrates like paper are very appealing for their use in disposable and biocompatible electronic applications and areas like healthcare, wearables, and consumer electronics. Plasma-jet printing uses a dielectric barrier discharge plasma to focus aerosolized nanoparticles onto a target substrate. The same plasma can be used to change the properties of the printed material and even sinter in situ . In this work, we demonstrate one-step deposition of gold structures onto flexible and low-temperature substrates without the need for thermal or photonic post-processing. We also explore the plasma effect on the deposition of the gold nanoparticle ink. The plasma voltage is optimized for the sintering of the gold nanoparticles, and a simple procedure for manufacturing traces with increased adhesion and conductivity is presented, with a peak conductivity of 6.2 x10 5 S/m. PJP-printed gold LED interconnects and microheaters on flexible substrates are developed to demonstrate the potential of this single-step sintered deposition of conductive traces on low-temperature substrates. 

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4. Comparing hydrothermal sintering and cold sintering process: Mechanisms, microstructure, kinetics and chemistry

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2019.11.049  

   Ndayishimiye, Arnaud; Sengul, Mert Y.; Bang, Sun Hwi; Tsuji, Kosuke; Takashima, Kenji; Hérisson de Beauvoir, Thomas; Denux, Dominique; Thibaud, Jean-Marc; van Duin, Adri C.T.; Elissalde, Catherine; et al (April 2020, Journal of the European Ceramic Society)
5. A Hybrid Desktop Process for Integrated Deposition and Low-cost, In-situ Sintering of Conductive Silver Nanoparticles

   Bhandari, Roshan; Bansal, Shalu; Dexter, Michael; Malhotra, Rajiv (March 2017, World Congress on Micro and Nano Manufacturing)

   Microscale continuous thin films or patterned conductive structures find applications in thin film electronics, energy generation and functional sensor systems. An emerging alternative to conventional vacuum based deposition of such structures is the additive deposition and sintering of conductive nanoparticles, to enable low temperature, low-cost and low energy fabrication. While significant work has gone into additive deposition of nanoparticles the realization of the above potential needs nanoparticle sintering methods that are equally low-cost, in-situ, ambient condition and desktop-sized in nature. This work demonstrates the integration of non-laser based, low-cost and small footprint optical energy sources for ambient condition sintering of conductive nanoparticles, with wide-area aerosol jet based additive printing of nanoparticle inks. The nanoparticle sintering is characterized by quantifying the sintering temperatures, sintered material conductivity, crystallinity, optical properties, thickness and microscale morphology in terms of the sintering parameters. It is shown that such optical sintering sources can be further integrated with inkjet printing as well, and the implications on new paradigms for hybrid additive- 

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