The manufacture of sintered glasses and glass-ceramics, glass matrix composites, and glass-bounded ceramics or pastes is often affected by gas bubble formation. Against this background, we studied sintering and foaming of barium silicate glass powders used as SOFC sealants using different powder milling procedures. Sintering was measured by means of heating microscopy backed up by XPD, differential thermal analysis, vacuum hot extraction (VHE), and optical and electron microscopy. Foaming increased significantly as milling progressed. For moderately milled glass powders, subsequent storage in air could also promote foaming. Although the powder compacts were uniaxially pressed and sintered in air, the milling atmosphere significantly affected foaming. The strength of this effect increased in the order Ar ≈ N2 < air < CO2. Conformingly, VHE studies revealed that the pores of foamed samples predominantly encapsulated CO2, even for powders milled in Ar and N2. Results of this study thus indicate that foaming is caused by carbonaceous species trapped on the glass powder surface. Foaming could be substantially reduced by milling in water and 10 wt% HCl.
The crystallization of 11BaO-25CaO-64SiO2 mol% glass powders and related effects of glass powder milling have been studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), light and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and differential thermal analysis (DTA). Glass powders were made by ZrO2 crushing with subsequent sieving or sedimentation or alternatively made by milling with agate, corundum and tungsten carbide. Although surface crystallization was detectable during late sintering, all powders fully sintered. Wollastonite was found as primary crystal phase followed by cristobalite and sanbornite precipitation. The latter crystallization steps caused a second DTA-peak for fine powders. DTA-peak temperatures shifted to lower temperature with decreasing particle size in any case. No significant effects of milling materials on DTA-peak temperatures were evident. As an exception, however, milling in agate caused strongly decreased temperatures of the second DTA-peak. This observation can be explained by the progressive mechanical damaging, which results from the required prolonged milling time with agate due to its small materials density, and the fact that diamond made scratches did promote surface crystallization of cristobalite. The present study thus shows that even for glass powders with excellent sinterability, milling can affect microstructure evolution.