Development of high temperature scanning electron microscopy and applications to sintering studies

The densification and microstructural changes of a metallic and/or ceramic powder compact during sintering is a critically important but incompletely understood process. Whether solely in the solid state or in the presence of a liquid phase, mass transport occurs at elevated temperatures to eliminate porosity and reduce the surface energy of the system. Changes in specimen dimensions, particle shape and pore morphology, formation of liquid phases and other direct evidence of the sintering process have been observed and recorded at temperature using video tape and 16mm time lapse movies of the TV scanning image. Materials that have been examined at elevated temperature are Ni, glass, Al2O3, UO2, W, Cu, WC-Co, and CaF2