Comparison of commercial and synthesized CaF2 powders for preparing transparent ceramics

Abstract Two different types of calcium fluoride powders (commercial and synthesized CaF 2 powders) were used to fabricate ceramics by the hot-pressing (HP) technique. The synthesized CaF 2 powders were prepared by a direct precipitation method, and the differences in characteristics between these two powders were investigated. We demonstrated that the transparency of the ceramics is highly dependent on the morphology and particle size distribution of the starting CaF 2 powders. The obtained translucent ceramics fabricated using the synthesized CaF 2 nanoparticles showed better densification and optical transmittance than the commercial powders. The average grain size of the ceramic sintered at 800 °C was 4.1 µm, with residual pores inside the grains.