Ceramic Material Processing Towards Future Space Habitat: Electric Current-Assisted Sintering of Lunar Regolith Simulant.

Xin Li Phuah,Xinghang Zhang,Haiyan Wang,Bruce Zhang,Han Wang,Jaehun Cho

doi:10.3390/ma13184128

Xin Li Phuah, Xinghang Zhang + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13184128

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Abstract

In situ utilization of available resources in space is necessary for future space habitation. However, direct sintering of the lunar regolith on the Moon as structural and functional components is considered to be challenging due to the sintering conditions. To address this issue, we demonstrate the use of electric current-assisted sintering (ECAS) as a single-step method of compacting and densifying lunar regolith simulant JSC-1A. The sintering temperature and pressure required to achieve a relative density of 97% and microhardness of 6 GPa are 700 °C and 50 MPa, which are significantly lower than for the conventional sintering technique. The sintered samples also demonstrated ferroelectric and ferromagnetic behavior at room temperature. This study presents the feasibility of using ECAS to sinter lunar regolith for future space resource utilization and habitation.

Highlights

The last human exploration on the Moon was nearly 50 years ago and significant efforts are currently on-going to explore the potential of future human habitation on the Moon
Previous studies have demonstrated the processing of lunar simulant powders via various bulk ceramic sintering techniques, including conventional sintering [8,9], microwave sintering [10,11,12], solar sintering [13,14], 3D printing [15,16,17,18,19,20,21], direct laser fabrication [22], selective laser melting [23,24], and glass-forming techniques [25]
electric current-assisted sintering (ECAS) is a sintering technique where powder is placed in an enclosed graphite die with applied pressure and high currents resistively heating up the die [30]

Summary

Introduction

The last human exploration on the Moon was nearly 50 years ago and significant efforts are currently on-going to explore the potential of future human habitation on the Moon. ECAS is a sintering technique where powder is placed in an enclosed graphite die with applied pressure and high currents resistively heating up the die [30]. This technique offers high heating rates and applied pressure, which allow for rapid densification of ceramics to occur and result in highly dense samples in a very short time. Various mechanical and physical properties, including mechanical hardness and ferromagnetic and ferroelectric properties, were analyzed to explore the great potential of lunar resource utilization of functional bulk ceramic materials for ferromagnets, ferroelectrics, and structural components on the Moon

Materials and Methods

Results and Discussion

Fracture

Conclusions