Form 15 (3/31/86) NSF PROJECT IST-850 5411 EXPERIMENTS ON THE COGNITIVE ASPECTS OF INFORMATION SEEKING AND INFORMATION RETRIEVING USER QUESTIONS FOR ONLINE SEARCHES QUESTION NUMBER: 029 A1. BRIEF TITLE: Microwave firing of ceramics A2. QUESTION STATEMENT: MICROWAVE APPLICATIONS TO CERAMIC FIRING/SINTERING The question is concerned with the microwave firing or sintering of the following ceramic materials: alpha-alumina or just plain alumina, barium ferrite, silicon nitride, boron nitride, titanium nitride, titanium carbide, silicon carbide, titanium boride, and molybedum silicide. Because these compounds are so specific the question has been generalized to: Has anyone reported data on the firing or sintering of (any) ceramic material using microwave radiation? I am unsure of the correct key words for the above search but have already found several relevant articles in the literature. I am searching for additional material specifically on the microwave properties of the ceramic materials. The articles I have already found are listed below in the hope that they might help qualify the key words one should be using to search for similar articles or reports. Definitions: firing - to heat a ceramic gel so that it hardens into a hard material sintering - to mix a ceramic with another material. The resulting mix is heated until the composite material hardens. microwave radiation - any electromagnetic radiation between 500 MHz and 10 GHz. Š QUESTION 029 - page 2 REFERENCE ARTICLES ALREADY FOUND D. Johnson and R. Rizzo, "Plasma Sintering of Beta-Alumina", Ceramic Bulletin, Vol. 59, No. 4, 1980, p. 467-472. E. Kemer and D. Johnson, "Microwave Plasma Sintering of Alumina", Ceramic Bulletin, Vol. 64, No. 8, 1985, p. 1132-1136. M. Krage, "Microwave Sintering of Ferrites", Ceramic Bulletin, Vol. 60, No. 11, 1981, p. 1232-1234. J. MacDowell, "Microwave Heating of Nepheline Glass-Ceramics", Ceramic Bulletin, Vol. 63, No. 2, 1984, p. 282-286. L. Quenmeneur, J. Choisnet, and B. Raveau, "Microwave Clinkering with a Grooved Resonator Applicator", J. American Ceramic Society, Vol. 66, No. 12, p. 855- 859. R. Roy, S. Komarneni, and L. Yang, "Controlled Microwave Heating and Melting of Gels", J. American Ceramic Society, Vol. 68, No. 7, p. 392-395. TYPE OF SEARCH REQUESTED B. A precise or a broad search: Broad C. Research application: Industrial D. Retrieve articles in English only or any language: Any language E. Years to be searched: No limits F. DIALOG databases suggested: Š