Events

Prof Clive Randall (The Pennsylvania State University) Cold Sintering of Functional Materials: A Path to a Possible Sustainable Manufacturing Future

Date: Wednesday 3 May 2023 12:00 - 13:00

Location: Online or in person at PP2

Cold Sintering involves a transient phase that permits the densification of particulate materials at low temperatures 300 oC and below. Sintering at such low temperature offers so many new opportunities. It permits the integration of metastable materials that would typically decompose at high temperatures. So cold sinter enables a platform for better unification of material science. Now ceramics, metal and polymers can be processed under a common platform in one step processes. With controlling the forming process new nanocomposites can be fabricated. Polymers, gels and nanoparticulates can be dispersed, interconnected and sintered in the grain boundaries of a ceramic matrix phase. With the ability to sinter metal phases, multilayer devices can be co-sintered with electrodes made from metals such as Al, Ag, Fe and Cu. With appropriate binder selection, polypropylene carbonate and its de-binding at 130 oC we can remove organic binders and leave metals and other more stable polymers within the layers that then can be co-sintered under the cold sintering process and form unique combinations of materials in multilayers. This talk will cover some of the fundamentals of cold sintering, as well as some new examples of this technology across different material systems, ranging from ferroelectrics, semiconductors, and battery materials. New demonstrations on shape and multiple processed samples will also be considered with mechanical strength testing and ultrasonic non-destructive testing as a strategy to bring insight in process control and understanding challenges in scaling the process.