Simulation and investigation of pore size graded titania layers during sintering

The topic of this work is the investigation of the sintering process of thin self-supporting ceramic layers with a gradient in the particle size and pore size distribution. These graded titania layers were produced by zentrifugal deposition from mixed sol powder mixtures with wide particle size distributions. The graded structure causes strong deformations of the layers during the drying and the sintering step. Finite element simulations were used to describe the deformation behaviour during sintering. The results were compared with the parpage of real layers. Furthermore, a possibility to suppress a sintering deformation is shown with the help of experimental and simulated data. The sintered layers were charakterized by SEM, AFM, gas adsorption and roughness measurements. Quantitative image analysis of polished cross-sections and AFM investigations of ion beam cutted slopes were used for detecting the run of the pore size gradient within the layers.