Effect of Variations in Polymerized Oxides on Sintering and Crystalline Transformations

This work shows that molecular structural variations can be introduced in oxide systems, including AI 2 O 3 , ZrO 2 , TiO 2 , and SiO 2 , by controlled hydrolysis and polymerization reactions during the formation of oxides from metal alkoxides. The chemical and stoichiometric makeup of hydroxides and oxides is not fixed and changes rapidly as a function of molecular size in the region where the size is extremely small. It was also observed that internal structural variations significantly alter the sintering behavior of oxide powders and affect their subsequent crystalline transformations.