Anisotropic Sintering in Polarized Microwave Fields - Evidence for Non-Thermal Microwave Effects

Microwave sintering has been proposed as an innovative technology due to its potential of direct volumetric heating and enhanced sintering. The potential of reduced sintering temperatures and cycle times is usually explained as a microwave specific non-thermal effect although there is still lack of direct experimental proof. Sintering of ceramics in polarized microwave fields and subsequent systematic microstructure analysis comes out to be a potential method to investigate the presence of non-thermal microwave effects.