ZnO as sintering aid and reactant for reactive flash sintering at room temperature

In this paper, ZnO was used as a sintering aid as well as reactant in the reactive flash sintering (RFS) of zinc-containing ceramic materials at room temperature (25 °C). The RFS of ZnO-based ceramics, both ZnAl 2 O 4 and Zn 2 TiO 4 , were achieved with the application of a high electric field. Contrary to previous reports, the RFS of ZnAl 2 O 4 was divided into two stages according to temperature changes, and the effect of the reaction exotherm on the RFS was presented for the first time in this paper. In addition, the RFS produced a larger grain size of ZnAl 2 O 4 than conventional sintering did.