TY - JOUR A1 - Bresch, Sophie A1 - Mieller, Björn A1 - Schönauer-Kamin, D. A1 - Moos, R. A1 - Giovanelli, F. A1 - Rabe, Torsten T1 - Influence of pressure assisted sintering and reaction sintering on microstructure and thermoelectric properties of bi-doped and undoped calcium cobaltite N2 - Calcium cobaltite (Ca3Co4O9) is considered as one of the most promising thermoelectric p-type oxides for energy harvesting applications at temperatures above 500 °C. It is challenging to sinter this material as its stability is limited to 920 °C. To facilitate a practicable and scalable production of Ca3Co4O9 for multilayer generators, a systematic study of the influence of powder calcination, Bi-doping, reaction sintering, and pressure-assisted sintering (PAS) on microstructure and thermoelectric properties is presented. Batches of doped, undoped, calcined, and not calcined powders were prepared, tape-cast, and sintered with and without uniaxial pressure at 900 °C. The resulting phase compositions, microstructures and thermoelectric properties were analysed. It is shown that the beneficial effect of Bi-doping observed on pressureless sintered samples cannot be transferred to PAS. Liquid phase formation induces distortions and abnormal grain growth. Although the Seebeck coefficient is increased to 139 µV/K by Bi-doping, the power factor is low due to poor electrical conductivity. The best results were achieved by PAS of calcined powder. The dense and textured microstructure exhibits a high power factor of 326 µW/mK² at 800 °C but adversely high thermal conductivity in the relevant direction. The figure of merit is higher than 0.08 at 700 °C. KW - Ceramics KW - Calcium cobaltite KW - Thermoelectric properties KW - Calcination KW - Pressure-assisted sintering PY - 2019 DO - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5107476 SN - 0021-8979 VL - 126 IS - 7 SP - 075102-1 EP - 075102-11 PB - AIP Publishing CY - Melville AN - OPUS4-48708 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mieller, Björn T1 - Influence of test procedure on dielectric breakdown strength of alumina N2 - Dielectric strength testing of ceramics can be performed with various setups and parameters. Comparisons of results from different sources are often not meaningful, because the results are strongly dependent on the actual testing procedure. The aim of this study is to quantify the influence of voltage ramp rate, electrode size, electrode conditioning, and sample thickness on the measured AC dielectric strength of a commercial alumina. Mean values, Weibull moduli, and failure probabilities determined in standardized short time tests are evaluated and related to withstand voltage tests. Dielectric strength values in the range from 21.6 to 33.2 kV/mm were obtained for the same material using different testing procedures. Short time tests resulted in small standard deviations (< 2 kV/mm) and high Weibull moduli around 30, while withstand tests at voltage levels with low and virtual zero failure probability in short time tests resulted in large scatter of withstand time and Weibull moduli < 1. The strong decrease in Weibull moduli is attributed to progressive damage from partial discharge and depolarization during AC testing. These findings emphasize the necessity of a thorough documentation of testing procedure and highlight the importance of withstand voltage tests for a comprehensive material characterization. KW - Ceramic KW - High-voltage testing KW - Dielectric breakdown KW - Alumina PY - 2019 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-483852 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-018-0310-4 SN - 2226-4108 SN - 2227-8508 VL - 8 IS - 2 SP - 247 EP - 255 PB - Springer AN - OPUS4-48385 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wang, X. A1 - Schmidt, Franziska A1 - Gurlo, A. T1 - Fabrication of polymer-derived ceramics with hierarchical porosities by freeze casting assisted by thiol-ene click chemistry and HF etching N2 - The freeze casting technique assisted with cryo thiol-ene photopolymerization is successfully employed for the fabrication of macroporous polymer-derived silicon oxycarbide with highly aligned porosity. It is demonstrated that the free radical initiated thiol-ene click reaction effectively cross-linked the vinyl-containing liquid polysiloxanes into infusible thermosets even at low temperatures. Furthermore, mixed solution- and suspension-based freeze casting is employed by adding silica nanopowders. SiOC/SiO2 foams with almost perfect cylindrical shapes are obtained, demonstrating that the presence of nano-SiO2 does not restrict the complete photoinduced cross-linking. The post-pyrolysis HF acid treatments of produced SiOC monoliths yields hierarchical porosities, with SiOC/SiO2 nanocomposites after etching demonstrating the highest specific surface area of 494 m2/g and pore sizes across the macro-, meso- and micropores ranges. The newly developed approach gives a versatile solution for the fabrication of bulk polymer-derived ceramics with controlled porosity. KW - Freeze casting KW - Preceramic polymer KW - Hierarchical porosities KW - Thiol-ene click chemistry KW - Frozen state photopolymerization PY - 2019 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2019.09.038 SN - 0955-2219 VL - 40 IS - 2 SP - 315 EP - 323 PB - Elsevier AN - OPUS4-49172 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zocca, Andrea A1 - Lüchtenborg, Jörg A1 - Mühler, T. A1 - Wilbig, Janka A1 - Mohr, Gunther A1 - Villatte, T. A1 - Léonard, Fabien A1 - Nolze, Gert A1 - Sparenberg, M. A1 - Melcher, J. A1 - Hilgenberg, Kai A1 - Günster, Jens T1 - Enabling the 3D Printing of Metal Components in μ-Gravity N2 - As humanity contemplates manned missions to Mars, strategies need to be developed for the design and operation of hospitable environments to safely work in space for years. The supply of spare parts for repair and replacement of lost equipment will be one key need, but in-space manufacturing remains the only option for a timely supply. With high flexibility in design and the ability to manufacture ready-to-use components directly from a computeraided model, additive manufacturing (AM) technologies appear extremely attractive. For the manufacturing of metal parts, laser-beam melting is the most widely used AM process. However, the handling of metal powders in the absence of gravity is one prerequisite for its successful application in space. A gas flow throughout the powder bed is successfully applied to compensate for missing gravitational forces in microgravity experiments. This so-called gas-flow-assisted powder deposition is based on a porous Building platform acting as a filter for the fixation of metal particles in a gas flow driven by a pressure difference maintained by a vacuum pump. KW - Additive manufacturing KW - µ-gravity KW - Laser beam melting KW - Parabolic flight KW - 3D printing PY - 2019 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-492190 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/admt.201900506 SP - 1900506 PB - WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH AN - OPUS4-49219 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -