Effects of ball-milling on properties of sintered alumina doped with Mn2O3

Abstract

Recently, with the huge use of smart gadgets, developing of smart jewelry represents a very interesting segment in material science, as well as in electronic science. Alumina is widely used ceramic in many industrial fields as pigments, catalysis, microelectronics, etc., mostly because of its low cost and appropriate mechanical and electrical properties, high surface area and thermal stability. Also, modified alumina could be applied in production of smart jewelry. Thus, the main objectives of this investigation is to improve features of sintered alumina doped with Mn2O3 along with mechanical treatment, in order to obtain strong ceramic with low values of dielectric loss and low relative dielectric permittivity, as well as esthetic. Commercial alumina powder was doped with 1 wt % of manganese oxide and treated in planetary ball mill for an hour. Characteristic temperatures of both powders (non-activated and activated one) were investigated in detail by DTA and TG analyses. After sintering at 1200, 1300, and 1400 oC for 2 h, XRD patterns and SEM images were recorded. Furthermore, mechanical and electrical properties were examined for all sintered samples.