Distribution of carbon contamination in MgAl2O4 spinel occurring during spark-plasma-sintering (SPS) processing: I - Effect of heating rate and post-annealing

Carbon contamination from the carbon paper/dies during spark-plasma-sintering (SPS) processing was examined in the MgAl2O4 spinel. The carbon contamination sensitively changes with the heating rate during the SPS processing. At the high heating rate of 100 °C/min, the carbon contamination having organized structures occurred over almost the entire area from the surface to deep inside the SPSed spinel disk. In contrast, at the slow heating rate of 10 °C/min, the carbon contamination having disordered structures occurred only around the surface area. The carbon phases transform into high pressure CO/CO2 gases by post-annealing in air and lead to pore formation along the grain junctions. The pore formation significantly occurs at the high heating rate due to the large amount of the contaminant carbon phases. This suggests that if once the carbon contamination was formed in the materials, it is very difficult to remove the carbon phases from the materials.