Microwave radiation: An alternative method to sinter utilitarian porcelain

Microwave heating has been widely used in the industry to synthesize dielectric materials. The electromagnetic field distribution is the major factor that influences how the materials are sintered in a microwave oven. To calculate the different distributions is then crucial to understand the complex phenomenon of the dielectric heating under a microwave radiation. In this work we demonstrate the viability to use microwave radiation to sinter utilitarian porcelain at 2.45 GHz, in a multimode cavity oven, with a nominal power of 1 kW. To characterize the quality of the final product we measured different physical properties, as rupture energy, impact resistance, porosity, water absorption and concentration of undesired elements, and we compared the results with that obtained with sintering by conventional methods. Finally, we observed that the sintering process is faster, with lower costs and lower emissions of harmful gases into the atmosphere.