Spark Plasma Sintering Furnace (SPS) for Lithium battery electrodes

The Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) furnace, also known as a Pulse Current Sintering (PCS) furnace, is an advanced powder sintering device. It utilizes high temperatures and pulsed DC current to sinter powder materials, enabling rapid densification. Compared to traditional sintering techniques, SPS operates at lower temperatures, requires shorter processing times, achieves faster sintering, effectively avoids grain coarsening, and produces materials with higher density and more uniform microstructures.

Product Overview:

The CY-SPS500-80KW-100T is a state-of-the-art spark plasma sintering system capable of reaching temperatures up to 2000°C. It is suitable for applications such as material annealing, hot pressing, bonding, surface treatment, and synthesis. It can process a variety of materials, including metals, ceramics, nanomaterials, and amorphous materials. This equipment is especially ideal for research on solid-state electrolytes and thermoelectric materials.

Product Features:

Rapid Heating and Cooling: SPS boasts an extremely fast heating rate, reaching hundreds to thousands of degrees Celsius per minute, significantly reducing sintering cycles.

Low-Temperature Densification: Compared to conventional sintering methods, SPS achieves densification at relatively lower temperatures, effectively preventing excessive grain growth.

Uniform Microstructure: The pulsed current removes surface impurities, resulting in higher sintering density and more uniform microstructures.

High Efficiency and Energy Saving: Short heating times and lower sintering temperatures result in reduced energy consumption, making SPS environmentally friendly.

Versatility: Capable of sintering high melting point materials, refractory materials, composites, and nanomaterials, it offers broad adaptability.

Purchase Information:

If you are interested in our Spark Plasma Sintering Furnace, please contact us for more details and a quote.

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Technical Specifications：

 Main Components：

Application Areas:

Powder Metallurgy: SPS is widely used for sintering high-performance powder metallurgy materials such as hard alloys, ultra-high-temperature alloys, ceramics, and metal matrix composites.

Ceramic Materials: Suitable for manufacturing high-performance ceramics such as alumina, zirconia, silicon nitride, and aluminum nitride, which can be used to produce electronic substrates, insulating materials, and semiconductor base materials.

Nano-Material Sintering: Applicable to manufacturing nanostructured composite materials, functional materials, and thin-film materials, such as nanoscale hard alloys and nanoceramic materials.

Functionally Graded Materials (FGM): Used in aerospace and nuclear reactor fields to effectively mitigate thermal stress and enhance heat resistance.

High-Temperature Superconducting Materials: Widely applied in magnetic levitation, MRI, and superconducting cables.

New Energy Materials: For instance, solid electrolytes in lithium-ion batteries, electrode materials for fuel cells, and thermoelectric materials.

Biomedical Materials: Sintering bioactive materials such as hydroxyapatite and titanium alloys for biomedical implants and artificial bones.

Application Example:《Preparation of Oxide Electrolytes (e.g., Lithium Lanthanum Zirconium Oxide, LLZO) Using Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS)》

Process Steps:

1. Raw Material Preparation

Select high-purity precursor materials (e.g., Li₂CO₃, La₂O₃, ZrO₂) to ensure the quality of the oxide electrolyte.

Weigh oxide powders in the desired stoichiometric ratio. High-purity lithium hydroxide is often used to ensure adequate lithium content after sintering.

2. Premixing and Ball Milling

Mix the powders evenly to ensure uniform composition distribution.

Use wet ball milling for several hours to enhance uniformity and reactivity, with anhydrous ethanol or isopropanol as the milling medium.

3. Presintering

Place the milled powder in a sintering furnace for presintering to form a preliminary solid oxide phase.

Presintering typically occurs at 800–1000°C for several hours. This step removes carbonate residues and forms the desired oxide phase (e.g., cubic LLZO).

4. Crushing and Secondary Ball Milling 

Crush the presintered blocks into fine powder for subsequent sintering.

Conduct secondary ball milling to further refine particle size and improve activity, ensuring uniform densification during SPS.

5. Mold Loading

Load the prepared powder into a graphite mold and compress it into a green body.

Use carbon paper or alumina paper to line the mold's inner walls and powder surface to prevent carbon contamination from direct contact with the graphite mold.

6. Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS)

Place the filled mold into the SPS equipment and set the parameters as follows:

Sintering Temperature: 1000–1200°C, optimized based on material requirements.

Pressure: Apply 50–100 MPa to enhance densification.

Heating Rate: A rapid rate of ~100°C/min to complete sintering in a short time.

Holding Time: 5–10 minutes to achieve the desired sintering effect.

Densification occurs through pulsed DC current and pressure, resulting in a high-density oxide electrolyte.

7. Cooling and Demolding

Allow the equipment to cool naturally to room temperature.

Carefully demold the sintered sample to avoid damage.

8. Post-Processing (If Necessary)

Conduct mechanical processing to smooth irregular sample surfaces.

Perform additional surface treatment or annealing as needed to stabilize the structure and improve conductivity.

9. Performance Testing

Test the oxide electrolyte for density and ionic conductivity to verify its suitability for battery applications.

Use impedance spectroscopy to measure ionic conductivity and observe the microstructure using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to ensure effective densification.