Nanocomposites and nanomaterials

Effect of heating rate on the sintering of thin films
obtained by tape casting.

D.I. Baranovskyi, S.E. Ivanchenko, A.V. Ragulya
Frantsevich Institute for Problems of Materials Science of NASU, Krzhyzhanovsky St., 3, Kyiv-03142, Ukraine
E-Mail: baranovskyi.dmytro@gmail.com

The development of nanotechnology stimulates the improvement of methods for obtaining and researching thin films. Today, thin films have a very wide range of applications, from functional coatings to the manufacture of multilayer systems such as capacitors or fuel cells.
One of the most productive methods for obtaining thin films is tape casting. With this method, our team managed to get film about 1 μm in thickness. But this thickness has been reached in the green body sample, that ıs why more interesting fact is thickness after heat treatment. After all, the removal of the organic component can lead to significant shrinkage during sintering. 
Thus, the main aim of this study is optimization of sintering process of thin films and the study of competing processes of mass transfer at different heating rates. Thin films were prepared from paste based on nanosized BaTiO3 powder with a particle size of 20-25 nm. The study of the kinetics of sintering process will be carried out in a dilatometric installation. And ınvestigation of grain growth and porous structure will be conducted at various stages of sintering, at temperatures range from 700 to 1200 °С. The resulting samples wıll be examined by using a number of techniques: optical profilometry method, XRD, microscopy, and others.