Texture Determination of Ceramic Materials by EBSD

Abstract Texture determination of ceramic materials is important in ceramic processing since it will ultimately govern the resulting material properties. For instance, recent results have indicated that preferred particle orientation leads to anisotropic shrinkage of tape cast ceramics. In this work, we report results on the effect of pressing as well as shearing during tape casting followed by sintering on particle orientation and texture development in ceramic materials. Oxides with different particle shape anisotropy and crystal structures have been investigated including tetragonal rutile titania (TiO2) and hexagonal alumina (A12O3). Ceramic samples were processed by either pressing or by tape casting of a high ceramic particle loading aqueous suspensions. The samples were then pyrolized at 425°C followed by sintering for one hour at 1200 and 1500°C for TiO2 and A12O3 respectively. High spatial resolution Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) (OPAL-Oxford) in a field emission SEM (LEO-982) has been used for texture analysis and for crystallographic orientation determination of particles. Between, 3000 to 5000 measurements per sample were recorded automatically to develop an orientation map.