Structural Rearrangement During the Sintering of MgO

MgO compacts were sintered from 900° to 1395°C in dry argon and in argon with 2.3 kPa of water vapor. The surface area and pore size distributions measured by mercury porosimetry showed large changes during the first minute of sintering, indicating that rearrangement instead of coalescence of small particles is the controlling process in the early stage. Rearrangement was found to be temperature‐dependent and to extend through the initial stage of sintering.