Grain Growth and Microstructure Development

Abstract

The properties of a ceramics are determined by its chemical composition intrinsically and microstructure extrinsically. For ceramics with a given composition, microstructure means the overall feature, which reflects its grain size and morphology, grain size distribution, porosity, pore size and distribution, type and quality of grain boundaries, as well as the nature and distribution of second-phases, and so on. For most applications, especially optical transparency, microstructural control means to achieve full densification, narrow distribution of grain size, least contamination, and so on.