Properties of ceramics prepared from nanopowders

Abstract

Fine-grained (on the order of several microns in grain size) ceramics have been produced from various nano- and submicron-sized powders (silica, alumina, titania, aluminum nitride, and tungsten carbide). The compaction and sintering behaviors of various powder mixtures and the properties of the resultant ceramics have been studied. For a number of compositions, fine-grained, dense, high-strength ceramics have been obtained with a microhardness of up to 16–18 GPa.