IR-transparent MgO-Gd2O3 composite ceramics produced by self-propagating high-temperature synthesis and spark plasma sintering

• Published in: Journal of advanced ceramics 2021-04, Vol.10 (2), p.237-246
• Main Authors: Permin, Dmitry A., Boldin, Maksim S., Belyaev, Alexander V., Balabanov, Stanislav S., Koshkin, Vitaly A., Murashov, Atrem A., Ladenkov, Igor V., Lantsev, Evgeny A., Smetanina, Ksenia E., Khamaletdinova, Nadia M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ceramics; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Composites; Crystallites; Fracture toughness; Gadolinium oxides; Glass; Glycine; Magnesium oxide; Materials Science; Microhardness; Nanotechnology; Natural Materials; Plasma sintering; Research Article; Self propagating high temperature synthesis; Self-propagating synthesis; Spark plasma sintering; Structural Materials; X ray powder diffraction
• ISSN: 2226-4108; 2227-8508
• DOI: 10.1007/s40145-020-0434-1

A glycine-nitrate self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) was developed to produce composite MgO-Gd 2 O 3 nanopowders. The X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed the SHS-product consists of cubic MgO and Gd 2 O 3 phases with nanometer crystallite size and retains this structure after annealing at temperatures up to 1200 °C. Near full dense high IR-transparent composite ceramics were fabricated by spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 1140 °C and 60 MPa. The in-line transmittance of 1 mm thick MgO-Gd 2 O 3 ceramics exceeded 70% in the range of 4–5 mm and reached a maximum of 77% at a wavelength of 5.3 mm. The measured microhardness HV0.5 of the MgO-Gd 2 O 3 ceramics is 9.5±0.4 GPa, while the fracture toughness ( K IC ) amounted to 2.0±0.5 MPa·m 1/2 . These characteristics demonstrate that obtained composite MgO-Gd 2 O 3 ceramic is a promising material for protective infra-red (IR) windows.