Sintering of Titanium in Vacuum by Microwave Radiation

The effectiveness of microwave (MW) sintering has been demonstrated on many ceramic systems, a number of metallic systems, and metal-ceramic composites, but remains ambiguous for Ti powder materials. This work presents a detailed comparative study of MW and conventional sintering of Ti powder compacts in vacuum. It is shown that MW radiation is effective in heating Ti powder compacts with the assistance of MW susceptors; it delivered an average heating rate of 34 K/min (34 °C/min), compared to 4 K/min (4 °C/min) by conventional vacuum heating in an alumina-tube furnace. Microwave radiation resulted in similar densification with well-developed sinter bonds. However, MW-sintered samples showed higher bulk hardness, a harder surface shell, and coarser grains. The difference in hardness is attributed to the difference in the oxygen content, supported by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses. The mechanisms of MW heating for metal powder compacts are discussed in the context of the sintering of Ti powder materials and attributed to three combined effects. These include heat radiation from the MW susceptors at low temperatures, enhanced MW absorption due to the transformation of the TiO₂ film on each Ti powder particle to oxygen-deficient Ti oxides, which are MW absorbers; and the volumetric heating of Ti powder particles by eddy currents.