TFIN+ director awarded funds in the Economiser programme for ultra-low temperature sintering technology

Sheffield is the leading group in the UK in this novel technology which may prove pivotal in the path to net zero for the ceramics sector. TFI Network+ director, Prof Ian Reaney, has been leading cold sintering research at Sheffield and has recently been awarded funds from the Economiser programme (UKRI) to upgrade existing equipment to demonstrate that cold sintering is scalable for commercial ceramics. The equipment will be part of the Royce Institute and we will be seeking collaborators from the Foundation Industries to explore projects with this new technology.

Cold sintering is an emerging technology that can densify ceramics and glass at ultra-low temperature (<300 ^oC) using a liquid medium and modest pressures (200 MPa). Prof Reaney has led a number of cold sinter projects including the direct deposition of ceramics onto Printed Circuit Boards (Figure 1) for the fabrication of microwave patch antennas and the cold sintering of Al₂O₃-SiO₂ refractories (Figure 2). The former facilitates new manufacturing technology for electronics and the latter reduces the energy for factory production by >50%.