Electric‐Field Effects on Sintering and Reaction to Form Aluminum Titanate from Binary Alumina–Titania Sol–Gel Powders

The field‐activated sintering technique (FAST) was applied to simultaneously sinter and react sol–gel amorphous powders to form Al 2 TiO 5 . Densities close to theoretical and conversion to Al 2 TiO 5 (to 92.5%) have been achieved using FAST at 1050°–1200°C for 10 min. Conventional sintering of the same powders at 1300°C for 2 h resulted in 88.9% Al 2 TiO 5 and ∼75% of theoretical density. The enhanced sintering and compound formation using FAST have been explained by the synergistic effects of precursor reactivity, nanosized powders, and electric‐field effects.