Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2011
Clean-room powder processing, furnace firing, and CO2-laser heating techniques to produce high-purity Al2O3 ceramics were applied to a new source of high-purity Al2O3 ( 〉13 ppm total and 〉8 ppm cation detected impurities). The chemical analyses of the material after each stage of processing and firing indicate that the procedures used in this work give no detectable contamination of the material. The microstructure of a CO2-laser ultra high-purity Al2O3 is illustrated. Densification is incomplete for this material. Calcination and deagglomeration were not optimized. Procedures, such as these are required to control the trace impurity contents in a fired ceramic material