Sintering of Fe2NiO4 with an internal binder: a way to obtain a very dense material

Abstract The coupled synthesis and sintering of Fe2NiO4 can be carried out from the calcination under air at high temperatures (>1200 °C) of precompacted (under 12 MPa) pellets of different mixtures: NiO/α-Fe2O3; NiO/α-Fe2O3/Fe; NiO/α-Fe2O3/Ni. The densest material is obtained at 1200 °C only from the following mixture: NiO (40 mol%), α-Fe2O3 (50 mol%) and Ni (10 mol%). Because the metallic nickel is very ductile, it is used as an internal binder in order to enhance the precompacting of the samples. Moreover, the role of nickel is to enhance the sintering reaction. This route leads to a final material of relative density close to 98±2%.