Review on Cold Sintering Process Technique in Preparation of Ceramic Materials

For the regular preparation techniques of ceramics, high-temperature sintering has always been a necessary condition to obtain dense microstructures and good properties. As a recently emerged technique, Cold Sintering Process (CSP) can achieve rapid densification for various ceramic materials at ultra-low temperatures (below 350 ℃) through dissolution-precipitation and other mechanisms. CSP has shown tremendous development space and high research potential by effectively solving the problems existing in conventional high-temperature sintering in terms of energy consumption, microstructural control and co-firing with organics. This review starts from the brief summary on the development history, technologic process and densification mechanisms of CSP. Then the application status of CSP on the preparation of ceramics (including bio-ceramic materials, new energy materials, semiconductor materials, dielectric materials, thermoelectric materials, unstable materials at high temperatures) is described, and its future development is prospected.