Mechanical strength of cold-sintered zinc oxide under biaxial bending

Zinc oxide is densified to 97% by the cold sintering process using an aqueous zinc acetate solution as the secondary transport phase. The mechanical response of the cold-sintered zinc oxide ceramics is investigated through the ball-on-three-balls biaxial bending technique. The analysis demonstrates that ZnO cold-sintered samples follow a Weibull distribution with a characteristic strength (sigma(0)similar to 65MPa) and Weibull modulus (m similar to 8). Phase purity and residual secondary phases were analyzed via X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. This report provides an initial demonstration of the mechanical properties of cold-sintered parts in the as-pressed and unmodified state and serves for comparison with conventionally prepared ceramics.