Sintering of fully faceted crystalline particles

Abstract

Abstract A sintering process of two fully faceted particles of cubic or prismatic shape contacting each other along a grain boundary is considered. Analytic expressions for sintering kinetics are obtained under the assumption that the sintering process is controlled by self-diffusion along the facets and the grain boundary. It is shown that sintering kinetics are determined by the surface self-diffusion coefficient and exhibit only a weak dependence on the grain boundary diffusivity. The initial rate of sintering is time-independent, except for the case of two prismatic particles brought in contact along their edges, for which the time dependence of shrinkage is, under certain circumstances, similar to that for isotropic spherical particles. It is demonstrated that particle faceting slows down the sintering process.