| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
Materials Science & Technology 2020
|
| Symposium
|
Manufacturing and Processing of Advanced Ceramic Materials
|
| Presentation Title |
Optimized Etching of Porcelain and Polycrystalline Alumina with a Glass Phase |
| Author(s) |
Sarah Whipkey, Max C. Modugno, Hyojin Lee, William M. Carty |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Sarah Whipkey |
| Abstract Scope |
Chemical and thermal etching are commonly used to enhance ceramic microstructural features for microscopy. While traditional etching conditions for these methods are sufficient for high purity ceramics, literature recommended conditions may not be applicable when significant glass is included. Porcelain and industrial alumina (Al2O3) contain measurable amounts of glass (~4-20 vol% in Al2O3 and 40-60 vol% in porcelain), and the chemistries of these glasses are proposed to be similar (silica-rich). Chemical etching porcelain is common, but published images are frequently over-etched, leading to erroneous interpretations of the role of quartz. Chemical etching was observed to be sensitive to residual stress in the glass, becoming more aggressive when in tension. For industrial Al2O3, thermal etching often initiated recrystallization of the grain boundary glass. To prevent this from altering and obscuring microstructures, combined chemical and thermal etching are proposed to prepare industrial Al2O3 for grain size measurements and to potentially assess porosity. |