ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mater.
Sec. Ceramics and Glass
Room-temperature rapid fabrication of porous ZnO ceramics by flash sintering with carbon electrodes
Yalin Bian 1
Ying Feng 1
Yifei Liu 2
Guilai Yin 3
Fangji Liu 3
Zhuo Liu 2
Jiming Song 4
Pengfei Zhang 1
Xilin Wang 2
1. China Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing, China
2. Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, China
3. Electric Power Science Research Institute, State Grid Jiangxi Electric Power Co. Ltd, Nanchang, China
4. State Grid Corporation of China, Beijing, China
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Abstract
Porous ZnO ceramics with tunable pore structures were prepared in air at room-temperature via flash sintering using the pore-former method in conjunction with a flash sintering device based on a carbon electrode structure. By employing various amounts of basic zinc carbonate as the pore-former, ceramics with adjustable porosity were obtained. The results showed that as the content of basic zinc carbonate increased, both the sample porosity and average pore size increased significantly; at high contents, millimeter-scale macropores and well-developed mesoporous structures were achieved. Flash sintering enabled rapid densification within a very short time, demonstrating high efficiency and energy-saving advantages. Mechanical property tests indicated that increased porosity led to decreases in Vickers hardness and fracture toughness. This study applies the room-temperature flash sintering technology to porous ceramic materials, expanding the application scope of the room-temperature flash sintering technology and providing a more efficient and energy-saving new method for the preparation of porous ceramic materials.
Summary
Keywords
carbon electrodes, Mechanical Properties, Pore-forming agent method, Porous ZnO ceramics, Rapid sintering, Room-temperature flash sintering
Received
25 November 2025
Accepted
20 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Bian, Feng, Liu, Yin, Liu, Liu, Song, Zhang and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Xilin Wang
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