TY - JOUR A1 - Ginés-Palomares, J.-C. A1 - Fateri, M. A1 - Schubert, T. A1 - de Peindray d’Ambelle, L. A1 - Simon, Sebastian A1 - Gluth, Gregor A1 - Günster, Jens A1 - Zocca, Andrea T1 - Material aspects of sintering of EAC-1A lunar regolith simulant JF - Scientific Reports N2 - Future lunar exploration will be based on in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) techniques. The most abundant raw material on the Moon is lunar regolith, which, however, is very scarce on Earth, making the study of simulants a necessity. The objective of this study is to characterize and investigate the sintering behavior of EAC-1A lunar regolith simulant. The characterization of the simulant included the determination of the phase assemblage, characteristic temperatures determination and water content analysis. The results are discussed in the context of sintering experiments of EAC-1A simulant, which showed that the material can be sintered to a relative density close to 90%, but only within a very narrow range of temperatures (20–30 °C). Sintering experiments were performed for sieved and unsieved, as well as for dried and non-dried specimens of EAC-1A. In addition, an analysis of the densification and mechanical properties of the sintered specimens was done. The sintering experiments at different temperatures showed that the finest fraction of sieved simulant can reach a higher maximum sintering temperature, and consequently a higher densification and biaxial strength. The non-dried powder exhibited higher densification and biaxial strength after sintering compared to the dried specimen. This difference was explained with a higher green density of the non-dried powder during pressing, rather than due to an actual influence on the sintering mechanism. Nevertheless, drying the powder prior to sintering is important to avoid the overestimation of the strength of specimens to be fabricated on the Moon. KW - Lunar regolith KW - Ceramics KW - Microstructure KW - Sintering KW - Softening temperature PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-592668 DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-50391-y SN - 2045-2322 VL - 13 SP - 1 EP - 14 PB - Springer Nature AN - OPUS4-59266 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hu, H.-L. A1 - Zeng, Y.-P. A1 - Xia, Y. A1 - Yao, Dongxu A1 - Zuo, K.-H. A1 - Günster, Jens A1 - Heinrich, J.G. T1 - Rapid fabrication of porous Si3N4/SiC ceramics via nitridation of silicon powder with ZrO2 as catalyst JF - Ceramics international N2 - Porous Si3N4/SiC ceramics were rapidly prepared with Y2O3 as sintering additive and ZrO2 as nitrided catalyst, using Si and SiC as starting powders. Porous Si3N4/SiC ceramics with 5 wt% ZrO2 addition showed a complete nitridation and good mechanical properties (with a high porosity of 34.96%, flexural strength of 150±4.2 MPa, linear shrinkage of 0.02%). It was revealed that the reciprocal formation of ZrO2 and ZrN effectively enhanced nitridation by inhibiting the melting of silicon in micro-regions. KW - D. ZrO2 KW - Rapid nitridation KW - Si3N4/SiC porous ceramics PY - 2014 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2013.11.098 SN - 0272-8842 SN - 1873-3956 VL - 40 IS - 5 SP - 7579 EP - 7582 PB - Ceramurgia CY - Faenza AN - OPUS4-30295 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zocca, Andrea A1 - Elsayed, H. A1 - Bernardo, E. A1 - Wirth, Cynthia A1 - Lopez-Heredia, M.A. A1 - Knabe, C. A1 - Colombo, P. A1 - Günster, Jens T1 - 3D-printed silicate porous bioceramics using a non-sacrificial preceramic polymer binder JF - Biofabrication N2 - Silicate bioceramics possess an excellent bioactivity; however, shaping them into complex geometries is still challenging. Therefore, this paper aims to present a new strategy for the shaping of a bioglass-ceramic with controlled geometry and properties starting from a glass powder combined with a preceramic polymer, i.e. a silicon resin, and reactive fillers. The powder-based three-dimensional (3D)-printing of wollastonite (CaSiO3)-based silicate bioceramic parts was demonstrated in this work. The resin plays a dual role, as it not only acts as a non-sacrificial binder for the filler powders in the printing process but it also reacts with the fillers to generate the desired bioceramic phases. The mechanical and physical properties, i.e. ball-on-three-balls test, density, porosity and morphology, were evaluated in 3D-printed discs. These samples possessed a total porosity around 64 vol% and a biaxial flexural strength around 6 MPa. The raw materials used in this work also enabled the 3D-printing of scaffolds possessing a designed multi-scale porosity, suitable bioceramic phase assemblage and a compressive strength of 1 MPa (for cylindrical scaffolds with total porosity ~80 vol%). Solubility in TRIS/HCl and in vitro assays, i.e. viability, cytotoxicity and apoptosis assays, were also performed. In vitro tests indicated good cell viability and no cytotoxicity effect on the cells. KW - KNN KW - Glass microspheres PY - 2015 DO - https://doi.org/10.1088/1758-5090/7/2/025008 SN - 1758-5082 VL - 7 IS - 2 SP - 025008 PB - IOP Publ. CY - Philadelphia AN - OPUS4-34957 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -