On the preparation of bio-, nano- and structural ceramics and composites by spark plasma sintering

Spark plasma sintering (SPS) is a comparatively new technique. It allows very fast heating and cooling rates, very short holding times, and the possibility to obtain fully dense samples at comparatively low sintering temperatures, typically a few hundred degrees lower than in normal hot pressing. During recent years, a wide variety of materials, e.g., ceramics, composites, cermets, metals and alloys, have been successfully compacted by the SPS process. This and other processing techniques that use direct current and electrically conducting pressure dies are briefly described, but the focus of our presentation are on how the kinetics of densification and grain growth can be manipulated by the use of the SPS technique so as to yield various materials that hold significant fundamental and technological interest. (C) 2003 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.