A study of the sintering behaviour of magnesium diboride

It is well known that a substantial increase in critical current density can be achieved by the heat-treatment of <em>ex situ</em> magnesium diboride powder-in-tube wires. However, it is not clear whether this is due to a true sintering process involving the significant transport of mate...

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Main Authors: Dancer, C, Mikheenko, P, Bevan, A, Abell, J, Todd, R, Grovenor, C
Other Authors: European Ceramic Society
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2009
Subjects:
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author Dancer, C
Mikheenko, P
Bevan, A
Abell, J
Todd, R
Grovenor, C
author2 European Ceramic Society
author_facet European Ceramic Society
Dancer, C
Mikheenko, P
Bevan, A
Abell, J
Todd, R
Grovenor, C
author_sort Dancer, C
collection OXFORD
description It is well known that a substantial increase in critical current density can be achieved by the heat-treatment of <em>ex situ</em> magnesium diboride powder-in-tube wires. However, it is not clear whether this is due to a true sintering process involving the significant transport of material and densification, or due for instance to the removal of volatile impurities from particle interfaces, limited chemical reactions at particle boundaries, or simply contact formation between particles by thermally activated direct adhesion. We believe that the term <em>sintering</em> in the magnesium diboride literature may often be used loosely when neither neck formation nor densification occurs during heat-treatment, and have designed experiments to understand what is happening during this processing step. We have studied the effect of a range of heat-treatments on the microstructure of pellets produced from commercial MgB₂ powder using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Vickers hardness tests and by density measurements using Archimedes' principle. The results are compared to those from a dense sample produced from the same powder by resistive sintering. No significant densification is observed in pellets produced by conventional pressure-less heat-treatment up to 1100 °C. However, a clear correlation between density and hardness is established by comparison with results for bulk MgB₂ produced by resistive sintering, which confirms that a classical sintering process has been induced in the latter samples.
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spelling oxford-uuid:d1f09427-c292-4414-8918-e21911fd9f742022-03-27T08:00:30ZA study of the sintering behaviour of magnesium diborideJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:d1f09427-c292-4414-8918-e21911fd9f74Materials SciencesEnglishOxford University Research Archive - ValetElsevier2009Dancer, CMikheenko, PBevan, AAbell, JTodd, RGrovenor, CEuropean Ceramic SocietyIt is well known that a substantial increase in critical current density can be achieved by the heat-treatment of <em>ex situ</em> magnesium diboride powder-in-tube wires. However, it is not clear whether this is due to a true sintering process involving the significant transport of material and densification, or due for instance to the removal of volatile impurities from particle interfaces, limited chemical reactions at particle boundaries, or simply contact formation between particles by thermally activated direct adhesion. We believe that the term <em>sintering</em> in the magnesium diboride literature may often be used loosely when neither neck formation nor densification occurs during heat-treatment, and have designed experiments to understand what is happening during this processing step. We have studied the effect of a range of heat-treatments on the microstructure of pellets produced from commercial MgB₂ powder using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Vickers hardness tests and by density measurements using Archimedes' principle. The results are compared to those from a dense sample produced from the same powder by resistive sintering. No significant densification is observed in pellets produced by conventional pressure-less heat-treatment up to 1100 °C. However, a clear correlation between density and hardness is established by comparison with results for bulk MgB₂ produced by resistive sintering, which confirms that a classical sintering process has been induced in the latter samples.
spellingShingle Materials Sciences
Dancer, C
Mikheenko, P
Bevan, A
Abell, J
Todd, R
Grovenor, C
A study of the sintering behaviour of magnesium diboride
title A study of the sintering behaviour of magnesium diboride
title_full A study of the sintering behaviour of magnesium diboride
title_fullStr A study of the sintering behaviour of magnesium diboride
title_full_unstemmed A study of the sintering behaviour of magnesium diboride
title_short A study of the sintering behaviour of magnesium diboride
title_sort study of the sintering behaviour of magnesium diboride
topic Materials Sciences
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