Resistive Coupled Microwave Sintering of Nanostructured ZnO for Solar Window Applications

Abstract

ZnO found applications in solar windows and UV shielding windows. In the present work nanostructured ZnO  is synthesized by the single step auto-igniting combustion technique. Various powder characterization techniques revealed that ZnO powders is phase pure and crystallised in face centred cubic lattice with an average crystallite size of 26  nm. A novel sintering strategy called resistive coupled microwave sintering is developed and optimised during the course of work by effectively coupling resistive heating and microwave heating in definite proportions. By this method ZnO is sintered to 98.3% of the theoretical density at  1050oC for a soaking duration of 30 minutes. The pellet sintered using resistive coupled microwave heating shows high load independent hardness of 2.37 GPa .  &nbsp