Susceptor-Assisted Enhanced Microwave Processing of Ceramics - A Review

Susceptor-assisted microwave processing is a rapidly growing technology due to its superiority over the conventional processing. In contrast to the conventional heating from the surface, the microwave heating occurs volumetrically via direct interaction with the material. Correspondingly, the microwave heating rates are in general much faster than the heating rates in the conventional furnaces, where heat has to be transferred from the heat sources to the material via conduction, convection and radiation. The need for the susceptor stems from the fact that the majority of the ceramics are low lossy materials and they cannot couple well with the microwave at room temperatures. The susceptor provides an easy and non-invasive technique to exploit the rapid microwave processing even for the highly microwave transparent ceramics, such as alumina, silicon nitride, quartz, etc. This article critically evaluates the susceptor-assisted microwave sintering and solid state synthesis of ceramics which have been reported over the last two decades. A wide range of ceramics has been considered and each case has been analyzed in terms of the enhancement of the processing rates and product qualities (grain structure, material properties, etc.) compared to the conventional processing. It has been shown that the susceptor-assisted microwave processing can greatly reduce the processing time while providing an easy pathway to achieve the desired product qualities. The use of the appropriate susceptor is the key to achieve the fast, smooth, and reliable microwave processing of ceramics and this article provides the required database for the appropriate design of the susceptor based on the process requirement.