Structure and mechanical properties of nanocrystalline silver prepared by spark plasma sintering

Publication date: Available online 24 March 2019Source: Materials Science and Engineering: AAuthor(s): Takahiro Mineta, Tatsuya Saito, Takahiro Yoshihara, Hiroyuki SatoAbstractNanocrystalline silver was prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS) using Ag nanoparticles produced by arc plasma method. The relative density and mean grain size increased with increasing sintering temperature and time. The mechanical properties of the sintered Ag were found to depend on the relative density as well as the mean grain size. The Vickers hardness of the dense sintered Ag samples satisfied the Hall-Petch relationship. In the tensile tests, the sintered Ag samples showed evidence of work hardening and uniform elongation, although the mean grain size of the sintered Ag was less than 500 nm. The yield strength of an Ag sample sintered at 600 K for 1 min was 5.2 times higher than that of coarse-grained Ag samples. The relationship between the yield strength and the grain size satisfied the Hall-Petch relationship. No Ag oxides were detected in any of the sintered Ag samples.
Source: Materials Science and Engineering: A - Category: Materials Science Source Type: research