4 Lesser-Known Spark Plasma Sintering Applications

In Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) a sample is compacted in a pressurized mold where heat is applied by discharging a pulse current to the sintering material, which creates spark plasma.

Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) is also known as Field Assisted Sintering Technique (FAST).

Source: Patent Image

In the taxonomy of sintering techniques, spark plasma sintering falls under pressurized sintering and solid compaction.

Due to its short sintering time, good grain-to-grain bonding, and clean boundaries of the sintered object, spark plasma sintering has many applications.

Discover the full potential of spark plasma sintering with our exclusive report. While this article covers only four new applications, our comprehensive report includes eight lesser-known but highly impactful uses of spark plasma sintering by Filling out the form below:

Producing nuclear fuel pellets by spark plasma sintering

Nuclear fuel pellets can be prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS) a powder that contains nuclear fuel at a maximum temperature of 850 to 1600° C, where the rate of increase after achieving 600° C. is 50° C./minute with the maximum temperature held for 20 minutes or less.

Nuclear fuel pellets with a density greater than 90% TD can be yielded by applying a controlled pressure of 25 to 100 Mpa.

The nuclear fuel present in the powder can contain uranium oxide, uranium nitride, thorium oxide, plutonium oxide, and other fissionable isotope oxides. Along with the nuclear fuel, the powder can also contain a thermally conductive material like SiC, diamond, BeO, or a metal alloy having a thermal conductivity greater than 10 W/mK to result in the formation of nuclear fuel pellets.

This has been described in more detail in this patent.

Making metal-carbon nanotubes by spark plasma sintering

The process of making metal-carbon nanotubes involves manufacturing a complex powder by performing ball milling of a metal powder and a single-walled carbon nanotube powder. The metal powder has an average particle size of 1 to 5 μm, where the metal is selected from the group of aluminum, an aluminum alloy, copper, titanium, a titanium alloy, and stainless steel. 

The complex powder includes 50 to 99.9 vol % of the metal powder and 0.1 to 50 vol % of the single-walled carbon nanotube powder. The weight ratio of the metal powder and the single-walled carbon nanotube powder to balls is set to 10:1 to 1:1 to perform a planetary-ball-milling process. The milling is performed at 100 to 500 rpm for 1 to 20 hours.

Finally, a metal-carbon-nanotube complex material is formed by spark-plasma-sintering (SPS) the complex powder. The spark-plasma-sintering is performed at a pressure and temperature range of 500 to 700 MPa and 500 to 700° C respectively. for 3 to 20 minutes.

For more details refer to this patent.

Producing copper hypoeutectic composite by spark plasma sintering

The process of making a hypoeutectic copper composite involves the following steps: 

  • Weighing of copper powder, Cu—Zr master alloy, and a ZrH2 powder is done such that Cu-xZr (x is the atomic % of Zr, and 0.5≤x≤8.6 is satisfied) composition is obtained.
  • The powder mixture is pulverized and mixed in an inert atmosphere until an average particle diameter of D50 falls within the range of 1 μm to 500 μm. 
  • Plasma sintering of the powder mixture is done by holding the powder mixture at a prescribed temperature lower than the eutectic temperature while the powder mixture is pressurized at a pressure within a prescribed range.

This has been described in more detail in this patent.

Manufacturing aluminum-boron nitride nanotubes by spark plasma sintering

Aluminum-boron nitride nanotube composite can be prepared by partially coating boron nitride nanotubes with aluminum, where the boron nitride nanotubes have a length of about 100 μm to about 300 μm.

The partial coating is performed by sputter deposition. Then, spark plasma sintering is done on the aluminum-boron nitride nanotube to make an aluminum-boron nitride nanotube pellet. Finally, the pellets are rolled to make the aluminum-boron nitride nanotube composite.

For more details refer to this patent.

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