Recent Progress in Applications of the Cold Sintering Process for Ceramic-Polymer Composites

Ceramic-polymer composites are of interest for designing enhanced and unique properties. However, the processing temperature windows of sintering ceramics are much higher than that of compaction, extrusion, or sintering of polymers, and thus traditionally there has been an inability to cosinter ceramic-polymer composites in a single step with high amounts of ceramics. The cold sintering process is a low-temperature sintering technology recently developed for ceramics and ceramic-based composites. A wide variety of ceramic materials have now been demonstrated to be densified under the cold sintering process and therefore can be all cosintered with polymers from room temperature to 300 degrees C. Here, the status, understanding, and application of cold cosintering, with different examples of ceramics and polymers, are discussed. One has to note that these types of cold sintering processes are yet new, and a full understanding will only emerge after more ceramic-polymer examples emerge and different research groups build upon these early observations. The general processing, property designs, and an outlook on cold sintering composites are outlined. Ultimately, the cold sintering process could open up a new multimaterial design space and impact the field of ceramic-polymer composites.