Spark plasma sintering of self-doped alumina powders

This work explores the sintering by spark plasma sintering of self-doped submicrometre alumina powders following an alcoxide route. It is shown that the self-doping process leads to nucleation of alumina nanoparticles located in the surface of the initial alumina grains, therefore avoiding the presence of phases other than alpha-Al2O3 in the final microstructure. The presence of such alumina nanocrystals leads to a modification of the sintering process minimizing grain growth compared to un-doped alumina powders under similar sintering conditions.