Densification of free MgO powders

This project aims to study the effects of sintering temperatures, sintering time, and the addition of different percentages of MgCl2 powder on densification process of MgO free (uncompacted) powder. This sintering temperatures were taken from 700oC to 1600oC at a heating rate of 100oC/min. The sintering times were 3hr, 24hr and 48hrs. The MgO powder used in this worked was very low density; around 0.1gm/cm3 and with grain size of 0.1μm. To improve the properties of this powder, we added different additive percentages (1%, 38%, 44%, and 50%) of MgCl2 powder. The densities of powders sintered at 1600oC reach reasonable value at low concentration of MgCl2 (1% or less). We obtained MgO powder with density 3.2gm/cm3 that is about 90% of theoretical density of powder. The relation between the tap density of pure MgO and added to MgCl2 powders with sintering temperatures, an important consideration is that the densification curves follow an exponential function of temperatures.