Effects of CeO2 on phase transformation towards cordierite in MgO–Al2O3–SiO2 system

Abstract The properties of cordierite ceramic depend upon additives and phase transformation in sintering. XRD and DTA techniques are used to study the effects of CeO2 upon the transformation towards cordierite. As the experimental results show, with an increase of CeO2 content, the temperature drops at which cordierite forms through diffusion in solid state; when liquid has occurred, the crystallization temperature first drops with CeO2 content and then rises, the lowest measured temperatures being at 2–4 wt.% of CeO2. The effect of CeO2 can be associated with the alteration of ion diffusion.