Injection moulding and sintering of ceria ceramics

Ceria powder was dry-milled to sub-micrometric particle sizes and used in the preparation of ceramic mixture for injection moulding. Specimen bodies were injection moulded in the shape of rectangular bars. The sintering kinetics of these bodies was studied in air atmosphere under various sintering conditions and also by the rate-controlled sintering method. Sintering the injection moulded CeO2 to a density of 7.08 g cm−3 (99.3% TD) was possible already at a temperature of 1400 °C, and the highest density value (99.8% TD) was obtained at a heating rate of 2 °C min−1 and a holding time of 1 h at 1500 °C. Using heating rates of over 5 °C min−1 had an adverse effect on the density obtained. Applying the rate-controlled sintering (RCS) method did not lead to any decrease in the grain size if compared with temperature-controlled sintering (TCS). No reduction of CeO2 ceramics was observed during all sintering experiments.