Low temperature sintering of TiO2

Abstract Low temperature sintering was achieved in ultrafine, well-dispersed and uniformly packed TiO2 powder compacts. TiO2 powder was prepared by hydrolysis of titanium isopropoxide, calcination at 550°C and dispersion in an aqueous solution with a controlled pH value. A sedimentation process was used to remove any coarse agglomerates in the well-dispersed TiO2 slurry. The finest particles remaining in suspension were concentrated into uniform compacts by a centrifuge technique. Whereas commercial TiO2 powder required sintering above 1230 °C to achieve a density which is 96% of the theoretical density, the prepared powder could be sintered to greater than 99% of the theoretical density at 840 °C.