Sintering behavior and mechanical properties of spark plasma sintering SiO2-MgO ceramics

SiO 2 -MgO ceramics containing different weight fractions (0, 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 wt%) of SiO 2 powder were prepared by mixing nano MgO powder, and the powder mixtures were densified by spark plasma sintering (SPS). The effect of SiO 2 addition and SPS method on the sintering behavior, microstructure and mechanical properties were investigated. Results were compared to specimens obtained by conventional hot pressing (HP) under a similar sintering schedule. The highest relative density, flexural strength and hardness of 2 wt% SiO 2 -MgO ceramics reached 99.98%, 253.99 ± 7.47 MPa and 7.56 ± 0.21 GPa when sintered at 1400 °C by SPS, respectively. The observed improvement in the sintering behavior and mechanical properties are mainly attributed to grain boundary "strengthening" and intragranular "weakening" of the MgO matrix. Furthermore, the spark plasma sintering temperature could be decreased by more than 100 °C as compared with the HP method, SPS favouring enhanced grain boundary sliding , plastic deformation and diffusion in the sintering process.