Synthesis and Spark-plasma Sinetring of Nanoscale Al/alumina Powder by Wire Electric Explosion Process

Nanoscale Al powder with thin layer of alumina was produced by Wire Electric Explosion (WEE) process. Spark-Plasma Sintering (SPS) was performed for the produced powder to confirm the effectiveness of SPS like so-called 'surface-cleaning effect' and so on. Crystallite size and alumina content of produced powder varied with the ratio of input energy to sublimation energy of Al wire ($e/e_s$): Increase in ($e/e_s$) resulted in the decrease of crystallite size and the increase of alumina content. Shrinkage curve during SPS process showed that the oxide surface layer could not be destroyed near the melting point of Al. It implied that there was not enough or no spark-plasma effect during SPS for Al/Alumina powder.