Impedance spectroscopy of a soda-lime glass during sintering

Impedance spectroscopy measurements were carried out during sintering of a compact of spherical soda-lime-silica glass particles (SiO2 72.5 wt.%, MgO 3.3%, CaO 9.8%, Na2O 13.7%, Al2O3 0.4%, Fe2O3 0.2%, K2O 0.1%). Impedance diagrams were obtained in the 5 Hz–13 MHz frequency range at different temperatures during room temperature −943 K–room temperature cycles. The glass transition temperature evaluated using the total electrical resistance of the glass specimens agrees with the value obtained by differential scanning calorimetry. The electrical conductance increases with the time that the glass is maintained at the sintering temperature suggesting that this behavior may be used to the study of sintering kinetics. A model to gather information on the sintering kinetics from conductivity data was developed and tested.