Non-conventional sintering: science and technology

Topics

Non-conventional sintering is emerging as a powerful tool to decrease the carbon footprint of the ceramic industry and as a new approach to obtain out-of-equilibrium materials, (including metastable phases, organic-inorganic composite and modified defect chemistries) which results in a bunch of novel mechanical and functional properties.

The Summer School aims at deepening the fundamental scientific and technological aspects of non-conventional sintering, including the effect of very high heating rates, electromagnetic field, electrical currents and the presence of liquids.

The event is open to Master and PhD students, young PostDocs and professionals, who want to deepen their knowledge on cutting-edge sintering processes and technologies.

Preliminary programme

The preliminary programme is divided into five sessions, organized in two and a half days as follows:

Monday, June 5^th

Session 1: General tools for understanding sintering

• Mattia Biesuz (University of Trento, Italy)
  Defect chemistry in the context of non-conventional sintering technologies
• Shen Dillon (University of California, USA)
  New insights into sintering mechanisms and models from in situ TEM
• Charles Manière (Normandy University, France)
  Sintering modeling, from conventional to advanced sintering processes
• Martin Bram (Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany)
  Introduction to novel sintering technologies and their technical implementation

Session 2: Cold sintering of ceramics

• Olivier Guillon (Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany)
  Mechanisms of cold sintering
• Catherine Elissalde (Institute for Condensed Matter Chemistry of Bordeaux, France)
  Cold sintering and hydro/solvothermal sintering processes: exploring chemical pathways for low temperature densification of electroceramics - Achievements and future challenges

Round table and social activities.

Tuesday, June 6^th

Session 3: Spark plasma sintering of inorganic materials

• Claude Estournes (French National Centre for Scientific Research, France)
  Spark plasma sintering : from the genesis of a research tool to design new materials to its transfer in industry
• Michael J. Reece (Queen Mary University of London, UK)
  SPS: advanced sintering tools toward new high entropy ceramics

Session 4: Flash sintering of ceramics

• Salvatore Grasso (Queen Mary University of London, UK)
  Flash like techniques energized by spark plasma sintering
• Vincenzo M. Sglavo (University of Trento, Italy)
  Flash sintering of carbides

Poster session and school dinner.

Wednesday, June 7^th

Session 5: Rapid sintering technologies

• Wolfgang Rheinheimer (Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany) 
  High heating rate sintering: from flash sintering to UHS and blacklight sintering
• Andraž Kocjan (Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia)
  Joule heating mediated pressureless rapid sintering of ceramics

Organizing committee

• Prof. Vincenzo M. Sglavo - Department of Industrial Engineering (University of Trento, Italy)
• Dr. Mattia Biesuz- Department of Industrial Engineering (University of Trento, Italy)
• Dr. Emanuele De Bona - Department of Industrial Engineering (University of Trento, Italy)
• Prof. Olivier Guillon - Institute of Energy and Climate Research: Materials Synthesis and Processing, IEK-1 (Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany)
• Prof. Martin Bram - Institute of Energy and Climate Research: Materials Synthesis and Processing, IEK-1 (Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany)
• Dr. Luca Balice - Institute of Energy and Climate Research: Materials Synthesis and Processing, IEK-1 (Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany)

Registration

Participants must register by email (sintering.school [at] unitn.it) before April 30^th 2023. The form is available in download box.

Registration fees:

• 160 € for students and young PostDocs
• 300 € for professionals  

The fees include registration, social dinner, coffee breaks with world-leading experts through lectures, poster sessions and round tables.

Financial support

The DFG Priority Programme SPP 1959 Fields Matter is a worldwide unique, coordinated, major research effort, funded for a period from 2016 to 2023. SPP 1959 is meant to extend the current level of understanding on how to influence or tailor materials microstructures by the use of external electric and magnetic fields.