Abstract
Sintering is a common process during which nanoparticles and microparticles are bonded, leading to the shrinkage of interstitial pore space. Understanding morphological evolution during sintering is a challenge, because pore structures are elusive and very complex. A topological model of sintering is presented here, providing insight for understanding 3-D microstructures observed by X-ray microtomography. We find that the topological evolution is described by Euler characteristics as a function of relative density. The result is general, and applicable not only to viscous sintering of glasses but also to sintering of crystalline particles. It provides criteria to distinguish the stages of sintering, and the foundations to identify the range of applicability of the methods for determining the thermodynamic driving force of sintering.
Highlights
Sintering is a common process during which nanoparticles and microparticles are bonded, leading to the shrinkage of interstitial pore space
For real porous structures which are nonequilibrium, non-periodic, and nonuniform, it is still a challenge to estimate macroscopic quantities from microstructures observed by X-ray microtomography[25,26,27]
While most of sintering studies are concerned with distinguishing matter transport mechanisms, we show that the evolution of interface topology shows remarkable similarity between viscous sintering of glass and diffusional sintering of crystalline particles
Summary
Sintering is a common process during which nanoparticles and microparticles are bonded, leading to the shrinkage of interstitial pore space. Recent advances in X-ray microtomography revealed that the three-dimensional (3D) microstructural evolution during sintering is far more complicated than the simplified model This limits the applicability of classical models in real situations. The direct measurement of a 3D structure, which is readily available from X-ray microtomography, provides a basis for the statistical analysis of microstructural characteristics, such as relative density, specific surface area, surface curvature, particle size, neck radius[9, 10], coordination number[10], heterogeneous particle displacement[11, 12], particle rotation[13], pore orientation[14], pore coarsening[15, 16], grain growth[17], and microstructural anisotropy[18]. DeHoff, and Aigeltinger[28,29,30] made a pioneering attempt to analyze the topological www.nature.com/scientificreports/
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