Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 January 2011
We investigated the interactions between screen printed and fired layers of Bi2O3 and ceramic substrates of alumina and beryllia. It was found that the reaction products are invariably crystalline in nature. Several transitions of Bi2O3 in its polymorphic phases were found to occur on BeO substrates, while newly formed compounds have been observed to grow on alumina substrates, i.e., Al4Bi2O9 on 99.9% Al2O3 and Bi12SiO20 on 96% Al2O3. Bismuth deeply penetrates in the ceramic interstices in all the cases. Until Bi2O3 is not completely reacted, this penetration is diffusion limited (penetration depth , where td is the reaction time) with values of the activation energy ranging from 3.7 ± 0.6 eV (BeO substrate) to 1.4 ± 0.06 eV (96% Al2O3 substrate). It is shown that these processes are notably different to those occurring in PbO/ceramic systems; moreover, they imply different adhesion phenomena of thick films on different substrates.