Sintering kinetics of a 18.8Li2O 8.3ZrO2 64.2SiO2 8.7Al2O3 glass ceramic

The LZSA (Li2O-ZrO2-SiO2-Al2O3) glass ceramic system has shown high potential as low temperature co-fired ceramics, the so called LTCC, for several applications, such as screen-printed electronic components, due to its low sintering temperature (< 1000 °C). However, a good microstructural control must be achieved in order to obtain a low porosity material. The 18.8Li2O 8.3ZrO2 64.2SiO2 8.7Al2O3 LZSA glass ceramic composition was prepared by melting, quenching in water, and grinding in order to obtain a very fine powder (3.78 μm mean particle size). Subsequently, compacted bodies were obtained by uniaxial pressing (40 MPa) and drying. Sintering kinetics was investigated by optical dilatometry measurements and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations. The activation energy for sintering was found to be 314 kJ.mol−1, whilst a maximum linear shrinkage of 22% and porosity of 3.5% were obtained with 10 min swelling time at 800 °C.