Paper from MAFA receives the 2022 Acta Student Awards

Isabela Reis Lavagnini has been awarded the 2022 Acta Student Award. This award is limited to candidates whose work was reported in one of the Acta Journals as a full-length paper, and who were students at the time the work was performed. A team of judges consisting of editors from Acta Materialia, Scripta Materialia, Acta Biomaterialia, and Materialia evaluated the nominees, considering the quality of the paper for which the individual was nominated, recommendation letters, and leadership potential. 

The awarded paper, "Influence of forming methods on the microstructure of 3YSZ flash-sintered ceramics", was published in Materialia as a result of a collaboration between Isabela Reis Lavagnini and her Ph.D. advisor, Prof. Eliria M. J. A. Pallone, with Prof. Lílian from MAFA. In the paper, we evaluated the influence of three different forming methods (uniaxial and isostatic pressings and slip casting) on the densification and microstructure of cylindrical flash sintered 3mol% yttria-stabilized zirconia (3YSZ) ceramics. Conventional sintering was also analyzed as a comparison. Irrespective of the forming method applied, all the conventionally and the flash sintered specimens presented high final densities. Regarding the grain size distribution, while conventionally sintered specimens presented homogeneity over the entire ceramics, flash sintering yielded specimens with grain size heterogeneity depending on the forming method used. The microstructure of the specimens prepared with slip casting was homogeneous. On the other hand, uniaxial pressure induced bigger grains at the core of the ceramics. This heterogeneity is attributed to the presence of green density gradients in the samples prepared by uniaxial pressing, which affects the current flow and, consequently, the heat distribution within the specimens.

Congratulations, Isabela! It is a well-deserved award!