5 Werkstofftechnik
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Dry pressing of ceramic materials requires homogeneously soft granules with good flowability to allow rapid die filling and to avoid packing defects. Spray-drying granulation appears to be the best method for obtaining granules with high flowability in industrial scale. But, strength reducing internal microstructural defects caused by spray-dried granules with hollow and hard shells are often observed using nano and/or multi-component starting powders.
Using the example of a ZTA composite, the potential of slurry optimization, ultrasound atomization and infrared drying for better granule properties and compaction behavior were investigated. Starting granules produced in a conventional spray dryer (Niro, Denmark) with a two fluid nozzle showed typical defects like large central pores and dimples.
The early step of slurry preparation already possesses an essential optimization possibility in the form of stability adjustments. Granule compaction was clearly improved upon a specific reduction in slurry stability. The second optimization opportunity to improve the granule quality was the atomization step. Implementation of an ultrasound atomizing unit into the conventional spray dryer positively affected granule size distribution and therefor flowability and as well granule yield. But, a combination of both process optimizations delivered the best sinter bodies with highest density and strength due to further reduction in maximum size and fraction of pores.
As last step of a spray drying process, the drying is the focus of further investigations. A current setup implying a spray dryer prototype utilizes stacked infrared heater in a countercurrent setup delivering a further increase in granule yield and enduring spraying process stability.
Homogeneous introduction of organic additives is a key of ceramic powder processing. Addition of organics to ceramic slurries holds advantages compared to dry processing like organic content reduction and a more homogeneous additive distribution on the particle surface.
Investigations of the alumina slurries were primarily based on zeta potential measurements and sedimentation analysis by optical centrifugation. Both methods were combined to determine a suitable additive type, amount and composition, whereas the spray drying suitability has been ensured by viscosity measurements. Granules, yielded by spray drying of such ideally dispersed alumina slurries, are mostly hollow and possess a hard shell. Those granules cannot easily be processed and can only hardly be destroyed in the following shaping step, leading to sinter bodies with many defects and poor strength and density.
The precise slurry destabilization, carried out after ideally dispersing the ceramic powder, shows a strong influence on the drying behavior of the granules and hence on the granule properties. A promising degree of destabilization and partial flocculation was quantified by optical centrifugation and resulted in improved granule properties. Spray drying the destabilized alumina slurries yielded homogeneous “non-hollow” granules without the above mentioned hard shell. Sample bodies produced of these granules exhibited a reduction of defect size and number, leading to better results for sinter body density and strength.
The positive effect of the slurry destabilization has been further improved, by exchanging the atomizing unit from a two-fluid one to an ultrasound atomizer with only minor slurry adjustments necessary. The controlled destabilization and ultrasound atomization of the ceramic slurry show excellent transferability for zirconia and even ZTA (zirconia toughened alumina) composite materials.
Efficient studies of scarce or expensive materials require material saving processes. Therefore, a high yield concept for small batch preparation of ready-to-press powder is exemplarily presented for yttria stabilized nano-zirconia (d50 < 50 nm).
The concept involves small batch preparation in an ultrasound resonator, dispersant selection based on zeta potential measurements, evaluation of slurry stability using an analytical centrifuge, and preparation of ready-to-press powder by freeze drying.
Freeze drying offers key advantages. Process efficiency and high yield above 95 % are independent of sample size. The dried product does not require further mechanical treatment like milling or grinding. Side effects like migration of additives are avoided.
An optimized freeze drying process tolerates slurries with moderate stability. Thus, efforts for slurry development can be reduced. Generally, identifying a suitable dispersing agent requires only 3-5 zeta potential measurements. Slurry stability is rechecked using an analytical centrifuge, which also accounts for steric stabilization. An ultrasound resonator is used to disperse the powder without contamination, which becomes critical for small batches.
The described route is exemplarily presented for the development of an additive recipe for nano-sized zirconia powder, targeting for good pressing behavior and high green density. Therefore, a variety of binding and lubricating agents were tested.
Following the presented route, 80 g zirconia powder were sufficient to conduct a study including slurry development and five sample sets with varying composition, each set comprising five discs (d = 20 mm and h = 2 mm).
Metalle
(2019)
Dieses Standardwerk bietet eine Darstellung der Struktur und Eigenschaften der Metalle und ihrer Anwendungen als Werkstoffe. Im ersten, wissenschaftlichen Teil werden der atomare und mikroskopische Aufbau, die thermodynamischen und die grundlegenden physikalischen und mechanischen Eigenschaften der Metalle beschrieben sowie die Grundlagen der thermisch aktivierten Reaktionen und der Phasenumwandlungen. Die wichtigsten experimentellen Untersuchungsmethoden werden erläutert, wobei die mikroskopischen und Beugungsverfahren einen Schwerpunkt bilden.
Im zweiten, technischen Teil werden die Werkstoffgruppen der Metalle und ihre anwendungsbezogenen Eigenschaften behandelt. Dabei wird auf die zugrunde liegenden Legierungen und die Verfahren zur gezielten Einstellung ihrer Eigenschaften eingegangen. Schwerpunkte bei der Darstellung der Werkstoffe sind die Stähle, die teilchengehärteten Legierungen, die Magnetwerkstoffe und die pulvermetallurgisch hergestellten Werkstoffe. Außerdem werden die Oberflächeneigenschaften und die Verfahren zur Oberflächenbehandlung dargestellt.
The search for strong and tough oxide glasses is important for making safer, more environmentally friendly, thinner glass products. However, this task remains generally difficult due to the material’s inherent brittleness. In search for tougher glasses, fracture toughness (KIC) prediction models are helpful tools to screen for promising candidates.
In this work, a novel model to predict KIC via the fracture surface energy, γ, is presented. Our approach uses readily available crystallographic structure data of the glass’s isochemical crystal and tabled diatomic chemical bond energies, D0. The method assumes that γ of a glass equals the fracture surface energy of the most likely cleavage plane of the crystal. Calculated values were not only in excellent agreement with those calculated with a former well-working model, but also demonstrates a remarkable equivalence between crystal cleavage planes and glass fracture surfaces.
Finally, the effectiveness of fracture toughness enhancement by chemical substitution is discussed based on our results and alternative toughening strategies will be suggested.
Enhancing the fracture toughness is still one of the major challenges in the field of oxide glasses. To screen different glass systems for promising candidates, a theoretical expression for the fracture surface energy, G, linked to the fracture toughness, KIc, is thus of interest. Extending our earlier work on nucleation and surface energies [1], we present a simple approach for predicting the fracture surface energy of oxide glasses, G using readily available crystallographic structure data and diatomic bond energies. The proposed method assumes that G of glass equals the surface fracture energy of the weakest fracture (cleavage) plane of the isochemical crystal. For non-isochemically crystallizing glasses, an average G is calculated from the weighed fracture energy data of the constitutional crystal phases according to Conradt [2]. Our predictions yield good agreement with the glass density- and chemical bond energy-based prediction model of Rouxel [3] and with experimentally obtained G values known at present.
[1] C. Tielemann, S. Reinsch, R. Maass, J. Deubener, R. Müller, J. Non-Cryst. Solids 2022, 14, 100093
[2] R. Conradt, J. Non-Cryst. Solids 2004, 345-346, 16
[3] R., Tanguy, Scripta Materialia 2017, 109-13, 137
The search for strong and tough oxide glasses is important for making safer, environment-friendlier, thinner glasses. As fracture toughness experiments in brittle materials are complicated and time-consuming , modelling glass fracture surface energy, G, and fracture toughness, KIc, is of interest for screening promising candidates. Inspired by Rouxel´s idea of preferred crack growth along cutting weakest bonds within a glass structure and a study by Tielemann et al. , which indicates a correlation between crystal fracture surface and glass-crys¬tal interfacial energies, we present a new approach for predicting G. Combining both ideas, we used diatomic bond energies and readily available crystallographic structure data for estimating G. The proposed method assumes that G of the glass equals the surface fracture energy of the cleavage plane in its respective isochemical crystal. We calculated G- values for more than 25 iso-chemical silicate systems and compared them to calculated values from Rouxel’s widely used procedure, which is well working and based on glass densities and chemical bond energies. Not only does our model yields good agreement with [3], but it also enables an estimation for glasses with unknown density and can therefore contribute to broaden the data basis for glass property modelling tools. Most interestingly, however, this agreement indicates an interesting similarity between cleavage planes in a crystal and its corresponding glass state in terms of fracture processes.
A femto-second pulsed laser ablation in liquid (PLAL) procedure for the generation of titanium oxide nanoparticles (NP) is reported with the purpose of understanding morphology and structure of the newly generated NPs. Ablation duration was varied for optimization of NP generation processes between 10 and 90 min. Surface morphology of NPs as well as their size and shape (distribution) were analysed by various complementary electron microscopy techniques, i.e. SEM, TSEM and TEM. The crystalline structure of titanium oxide particles was investigated by XRD and HR-TEM. Concentration of generated titanium oxide NPs in liquid was analysed by ICP-MS. A mix of crystalline (mainly anatase), partly crystalline and amorphous spherical titanium oxide NPs can be reported having a mean size between 10 and 20 nm, which is rather independent of the laser ablation (LA) duration. A second component consisting of irregularly shaped, but crystalline titanium oxide nanostructures is co-generated in the LA water, with more pronounced occurrence at longer LA times. The provenance of this component is assigned to those spherical particles generated in suspension and passing through the converging laser beam, being hence subject to secondary irradiation effects, e. g. fragmentation.
Additive manufacturing of alkali-activated materials currently attracts a lot of attention, because of the possibility to produce customized high-performance elements for a range of applications, potentially being more resource-efficient than conventionally produced parts. Here, we describe a new additive manufacturing process for alkali-activated materials that is based on selective laser-heating of lithium aluminate/microsilica slurries. The new process-material combination allows to manufacture elements with complex geometries at high building rates and high accuracy. The process is versatile and transferrable to structures of sizes differing by orders of magnitude. The mechanical strength of the obtained materials was in the range of values reported for conventional metakaolin-based geopolymers, and superior to what has been hitherto reported for alkali-activated materials produced by additive manufacturing. This mechanical performance was obtained despite the fact that the degree of reaction of the lithium aluminate and the microsilica was low, suggesting that significant reactions took place only at the surface of the microsilica particles.
For the additive manufacturing of large components typically powder-based methods are used. A powder is deposited layer by layer by means of a recoater, then, the component structure is printed into each individual layer. We introduce here the new method of local laser drying, which is a suspension-based method specially developed for the manufacturing of large voluminous ceramic parts. The structure information is directly written into the freshly deposited layer of suspension by laser drying. Initially, the technology was developed for ceramic suspensions, however, first experiments with geopolymers reveal a high potential for this class of materials. Metakaolin, fly ash and lithium aluminate-based one-part geopolymers were used in first experiments. The local annealing of the geopolymer slurry results in a drying and crosslinking reaction and, thus, in a local consolidation of the material. First parts made are introduced and their properties are discussed.
Additive manufacturing is well established for plastics and metals, and it gets more and more implemented in a variety of industrial processes. Beside these well-established material platforms, additive manufacturing processes are highly interesting for ceramics, especially regarding resource conservation and for the production of complex three-dimensional shapes and structures with specific feature sizes in the µm and mm range with high accuracy. The usage of ceramics in 3D printing is, however, just at the beginning of a technical implementation in a continuously and fast rising field of research and development. The flexible fabrication of highly complex and precise 3D structures by means of light-induced photopolymerization that are difficult to realize using traditional ceramic fabrication methods such as casting and machining is of high importance. Generally, slurry-based ceramic 3D printing technologies involve liquid or semi-liquid polymeric systems dispersed with ceramic particles as feedstock (inks or pastes), depending on the solid loading and viscosity of the system. This paper includes all types of photo-curable polymer-ceramic-mixtures (feedstock), while demonstrating our own work on 3D printed alumina toughened zirconia based ceramic slurries with light induced polymerization on the basis of two-photon absorption (TPA) for the first time. As a proven exemplary on cuboids with varying edge length and double pyramids in the µm-range we state that real 3D micro-stereolithographic fabrication of ceramic products will be generally possible in the near future by means of TPA. This technology enables the fabrication of 3D structures with high accuracy in comparison to ceramic technologies that apply single-photon excitation. In sum, our work is intended to contribute to the fundamental development of this technology for the representation of oxide-ceramic components (proof-of-principle) and helps to exploit the high potential of additive processes in the field of bio-ceramics in the medium to long-term future.
High conductive silver-glass-metallization-pastes are key components in photovoltaics and advanced microelectronics. However, the underlying mechanisms of liquid phase sintering as silver dissolution, diffusion and reprecipitation are poorly understood so far.
In the current work, the influence of different network modifier in alkali-zinc-borate paste-glasses on liquid phase sintering of silver-glass-composites was studied. Therefore, silver-glass-composites containing 30 vol% glass were prepared, using low melting X2O-ZnO-B2O3 glasses with X = Na, Li, and Rb (NZB, LZB, and RZB). Glass transition temperature, viscosity, glass-silver wetting, crystallization and sintering behavior was studied by means of thermal analysis, dilatometry, heating microscopy and microscopy.
Similar glass transition temperatures of 450 °C (RZB), 460 °C (LZB) and 465 °C (NZB) were found by means of thermal analysis for glasses under study. Also, all glasses have a similar crystallization onset at about 550 °C, even though exhibiting with a different degree of crystallization.
Despite these similarities, however, the sintering behavior, measured in terms of area shrinkage, significantly differs for the composites. This finding indicates a different degree of silver dissolution. Assuming that dissolved silver reduces the viscosity, this effect could explain why glass crystallization starts at lower temperature in the composites. For example, the crystallization peak of LZB at 629 °C measured for pure glass powder compacts was decreased to 586 °C for the composite. Confirmatively, microstructure analyses indicate different degrees of silver dissolution, as e.g. revealed by different amount of silver precipitates within the residual glass phase, and reprecipitation. Best silver dissolution appeared for the RZB glass. Nevertheless, the final densification of RZB was retarded probably due to swelling and crystallization.
Glasses in the systems Me2O-ZnO-B2O3 with Me = Li, Na, K, Rb (MeZB), Na2O-ZnO-CuO-B2O3 (NZCuB), CaO-ZnO-B2O3 (CaZB), and Li2O-PbO-B2O3 (LPbB) as a reference, were studied by differential thermal analysis, dilatometry, rotational viscometry, and heating microscopy. A decrease of viscosity and sintering range was found with decreasing number of fourfold coordinated boron. The viscosity of the alkali zinc borate glasses varies only slightly. LPbB and CaZB stand out by their reduced and increased viscosities, respectively. Sodium, potassium, and calcium zinc borate glasses possess a fragility above 76. All glasses were sintered to full density before crystallization. Mostly binary zinc borate phases govern crystallization. A ternary crystalline phase was detected only in the potassium containing sample. The Weinberg glass stability parameter ranges between 0.07 and 0.12. This is caused by the presence of several crystalline phases and varying melting points of even the same crystalline phase in different glass matrices.
Low melting Li2O-PbO-B2O3, Me2O-ZnO-B2O3, Me = Li, Na, K, Rb and CaO-ZnO-B2O3 glasses were studied with Raman and infrared spectroscopies to advance the structural understanding of zinc borate glasses as potential candidates for substitution of lead containing glasses. Although the effect of type of alkali ions on the number (N4) of fourfold coordinated boron (B4) in the glasses is small, the alkali ions direct the type of borate groups, i.e., pentaborate in lithium, sodium, and calcium zinc borate glasses, as well as diborate in potassium and rubidium containing ones. Both groups were simultaneously found in Li2O-PbO-B2O3. Alkali ions are mainly responsible for the formation of B4-units and metaborate. Zinc ions favorably compensate non-bridging oxygen and partially form ZnO4. With decreasing N4 and field strength of the alkali ions the atomic packing density, glass transition temper ature and Young’s Modulus also decrease. The coefficient of thermal expansion increases with decreasing N4.
Since decades electric contacts based on silver metallization pastes are key components of photovoltaics and advanced microelectronics. For the metallization of commercial Si solar cells, high conductive silver glass pastes are cost effectively applicated by screen printing. Nevertheless, silver pastes are still one of the most crucial and expensive none Si materials in solar cells. Ever shorter time to market as well as increasing demands on reduced Ag consumption and line width require the targeted development of silver-glass-pastes with increased sinter ability and electrical conductivity. As a main difficulty, however, the liquid phase sintering of silver glass pastes is poorly understood so far.
In the present study, the influence of different network modifier in alkali-zinc-borate paste glasses on liquid phase sintering of silver-glass-pastes was investigated. Low melting X2O-ZnO-B2O3 glasses with X = Na, Li and Rb (abbr. LZB, NZB, and RZB) were utilized to prepare silver-glass-composites containing 30 %Vol glass. Shrinkage behavior of the silver-glass-composites compared with that of pure silver and pure glass powder compacts was studied with heating microscopy. The powder compacts were uniaxially pressed and heated at 5 K/min to the glass softening temperature. Glass transformation temperature and viscosity of the glasses were respectively measured with dilatometry and rotational viscometry. The thermal behavior of the pure glasses was analyzed with thermal analysis. Additionally, the contact angle of glass on pure silver foil was determined by means of heating microscopy between room temperature and 830 °C.
Thermal analysis of the alkali-zinc-borate-glasses under study has shown transformation temperatures between 450 °C (RZB), 460 °C (LZB) and 465 °C (NZB). For all glasses crystallization was found to start approximately at about 550 °C. However, different peak areas hint on a different degree of crystallization. Conformingly, the sintering behavior, measured in terms of area shrinkage, significantly differed for the silver-pastes under study. For silver-pastes with NZB or LZB-glass, sintering starts at 464 °C for NZB Ag pastes and at 451 °C for LZB Ag pastes and ends at 597 °C for NZB Ag paste and at 594 °C for LZB Ag paste. The sintering of the RZB Ag paste proceeds between 426 °C and 703 °C. The final densification was retarded possibly due to crystallization or swelling. The low sinter onset at 426 °C seems to correlate with the good wetting behavior of the RZB glass. Thus, the lowest apparent contact angle between the just densified powder compact sintered at a silver substrate was found for this glass. Moreover, microstructure analyses of the various composites indicate differences in silver dissolution and reprecipitation.
Low melting zinc borate glasses awake interest to replace lead borate glasses in the silver metallization pastes for solar cells or microelectronics. In the current study, characteristic properties of alkali zinc borate glasses (X2O-ZnO-B2O3, X = Li, Na, K, Rb) were compared to an earth alkali zinc borate glass (CaO-ZnO-B2O3). Additionally, zinc oxide is partially substituted by lead oxide or cooper oxide in the borate glasses (Li2O-PbO-B2O3, Na2O ZnO CuO-B2O3). The alkali zinc borate glasses indicate less differences in Raman spectra, and thus in structural properties, in comparison to the Ca and Pb ions influence. LPbB (Tg = 401 °C) has a lower viscosity than LZB (Tg = 468 °C) and CaZB has the highest glass transition temperature (Tg = 580 °C). The Angell plot for the alkali zinc borate glasses shows a high fragility m = 80. Besides Tg, the density measured by means of the Archimedean principle, molar volume, and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of the glasses were investigated. Trends could be found according to alkali ions or intermediate oxides. The density increases with decreasing alkali ion size from KZB (2.632 g/cm3) to LZB (2.829 g/cm3) and increases from LZB to LPbB (3.764 g/cm3). CTE ranges between 7.09 10-6 K-1 for CaZB and 11.5 10 6 K 1 for KZB and RZB. The differential thermal analysis (DTA) and X ray diffraction (XRD) indicate crystallization of various crystalline phases during heating with 5 K/min in most cases.
Network modifier ions can decisively influence properties and structure of low melting alkali-zinc-borate glasses and thus cause complex effects on the liquid phase sintering of silver-glass metallization pastes. This effect was studied for X2O-ZnO-B2O3 (X = Li, Na, Rb) glasses for silver-glass metallization pastes. Viscosity and the glass transition temperature, Tg, were measured with rotational viscometry and dilatometry. Dried model pastes with 30 vol% LZB, NZB or RZB glass were prepared for sintering studies by means of heating microscopy measuring the silhouette area shrinkage of uniaxially pressed powder compacts during heating at 5 K/min. For comparison, the silhouette area shrinkage of pure glass and silver powder compacts were determined. Glass-silver wetting was investigated during heating of bulk glass cylinders placed on silver substrates. Glass RZB turned out to have the lowest viscosity among the glasses under study. Its glass transformation temperature, Tg, was found at 444 °C and it caused the lowest sintering onset for its glass and paste powder compacts. Slightly increased values of Tg were found for NZB and LZB (468 °C and 466 °C, respectively) and a slightly retarded sintering was found for both paste powder compacts. These results indicate that liquid phase sintering of silver-glass pastes under air atmosphere is mainly influenced by glass viscosity.
Liquid phase sintering of glass bearing silver pastes used in photovoltaics and microelectronics is poorly understood. In particular, the role of different network modifiers acting in the glass component and the question of the most suitable atmospheric oxygen level during sintering are still under considerable debate. To tackle these issues, low-melting and lead-free X2O-ZnO-B2O3 glasses with X = Li, Na, K and Rb (LZB, NZB, KZB and RZB) were prepared. Infrared spectroscopy showed that the glass structure was similar to each other, while an increase of tetrahedrally coordinated boron with increasing field strength of the alkali was evident. In turn, the glass transition temperature (from differential thermal analysis) increased in the order: RZB (449 °C) < KZB (460 °C) < NZB (465 °C) < LZB (472 °C). Powders of each glass were mixed with organics to receive silver-glass-pastes containing 30 vol% glass and these were subjected to heating microscopy in air. Although similar onset temperatures of sintering were recorded for Ag-NZB and Ag-LZB glass pastes, and for Ag-RZB paste and KZB-Ag-paste, respectively, differences in the crystallization behavior and final densification were observed between the former and the latter group. These were translated in terms of differences in silver dissolution and reprecipitation among the two groups. Further, running the experiments in nitrogen gas showed that sintering of all pastes was considerably hampered. The slow-down of the sinter kinetics was found to be in line with the assumed lower oxidation and dissolution of silver ions into the glass-forming liquid.
Melting of Na2CO3-ZnO-B2O3 batches containing up to 16.8 wt% AgNO3 (5 mol% Ag2O in the target glass composition) was observed in situ by means of hot stage microscopy. In all batches metallic silver precipitation took place as most of the silver nitrate was reduced to metallic silver before Ag+ ions could be dissolved in the evolving borate melts. In turn, only traces of Ag+ (<300 ppmw) were dissolved in the sodium zinc borate glass melts under study. It is assumed that the oxidation to Ag+ was limited due to poor availability of reducible oxygen in the glass melts and presence of Na2O being a stronger base than Ag2O. Thus, the precipitated metallic silver formed droplets of different sizes. The larger droplets (d > 20 µm) were already settled at the bottom of the container and remained constant in size upon dwelling for 1 h at 1050 °C of about one hour and the subsequent cooling (45 K/min) to room temperature, whereas the smaller droplets (d < 20 µm) were mobile in the borate melt due to Marangoni and Stokes motion. For the latter droplets, coalescence was observed in situ. A growth of larger droplets at the expense of smaller ones, i.e., Ostwald ripening was also expected but could not be studied with the used experimental equipment.
Silber-Glas Wechselwirkungen spielen eine wichtige Rolle zum Beispiel in Glas-haltigen Silberpasten, die in der Photovoltaik oder Mikroelektronik verwendet werden. Um ein besseres Verständnis der Vorgänge zu erhalten, werden niedrig-schmelzende, bleifreie X2O ZnO B2O3 Gläser (X = Li, Na, K und Rb, Abk.: LZB, NZB, KZB and RZB) zur Untersuchung der Pasten verwendet.
Raman und Infrarot Spektroskopie zeigen, dass die Glasstruktur weitgehend vergleichbar ist, aber Unterschiede in der Bildung von Pentaboratgruppen in LZB und NZB oder Diboratgruppen in KZB und RZB auftreten. Die Anzahl an vierfach koordinierten Bor-Ionen (N4) sinkt mit zunehmendem Alkaliionenradius. Die Verringerung von N4 führt zu einer niedrigeren Glasübergangstemperatur in der Reihe LZB (472 °C) < NZB (465 °C) < KZB (460 °C) < RZB (449 °C).
Zur Herstellung der Pasten wurde kommerzielles Silber-Pulver mit 30 Vol.-% Glas und Organik gemischt. Das Sinterverhalten der gepressten Pulver wurde mittels Erhitzungsmikrospie untersucht. Der Sinterbeginn der Pasten ist vergleichbar und korrespondiert mit den geringen Unterschieden der Viskosität bei vergleichbarer Partikelgröße der Gläser. In den Ag-KZB- und Ag-RZB-Pasten ist die Schwindung durch die stärker einsetzende Kristallisation im Vergleich zu LZB und NZB verzögert.