Driving Force for Sintering of Particles with Anisotropic Surface Energies

Abstract

Crystalline aggregates at constant temperature and pressure are unstable toward shape changes for which deltaG=( (sigma /SUB i/ A /SUB i/ +el /SUB i/ h /SUB i/ ))<0, wheredeltaG is a differential change in the Gibbs free energy, sigma /SUB i/ A /SUB i/ is the free energy of surface or interface i, and el /SUB i/ h /SUB i/ is the free energy of edge, ledge, or dislocation defect i. The expression reduces to the familiar expression for the driving force for early-stage sintering. Line defects play central roles in driving the sintering of crystalline solids.