The group’s research focuses on interface thermodynamics, kinetics, and microstructural evolution in ceramics and metal–ceramic systems. Core activities include experimental and analytical studies of wetting at metal–ceramic and solid–solid interfaces using Winterbottom analysis, and applying these insights to the design and processing of ceramic matrix composites, metal–ceramic and ceramic–ceramic joints, and advanced nanocomposites. A major theme is solute adsorption at interfaces and grain boundaries, and its effect on excess interface energy, atomistic structure, grain boundary mobility, diffusion, and equilibrium crystal shape, often under controlled gas atmospheres and external fields. This work is underpinned by in-depth, correlative electron microscopy and by the development of rapid-heating routes to sintering, enabling the exploration of metastable grain boundary states, ultra-fast diffusion, and high-temperature solubility limits of dopants and impurities in ceramic materials.
News & Updates
- New paper on: Detecting and Measuring Interface Chemistry to Correlate With Interface Properties: Can Interfaces be “Clean”?K. van Benthem and W. D. Kaplan, Detecting and Measuring Interface Chemistry to Correlate With Interface Properties: Can Interfaces be “Clean”?, Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 109: e70530, 2026.
- New paper on: Ultrafast Firing Effects in Y-doped Zirconia NanoparticlesM. Biesuz, E. Martin, L. Karacasulu, T. Hérisson de Beauvoir, R. Marder, W.D. Kaplan and C. Estournès, Ultrafast firing effects in Y-doped zirconia nanoparticles: Heating rate matters even under “Conventional” conditions, Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 47: 118809, 2027.
- New paper on: Carbon and Sintering of OxidesE. Martin, L. Karacasulu, R. Chaudhary, W. D. Kaplan, R. Marder, T. Herisson de Beauvoir, C. Estournès and M. Biesuz, Carbon and sintering of oxides: Densification kinetics vary by orders of magnitude, Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 46: 118550, 2026.
- Paper by Xinnian WuCongratulations to Xinnian Wu on her new paper, The Influence of Fe on Grain Boundary Mobility in Alumina, published in Acta Materialia. The paper is open access, and it can be downloaded here.
- Ultra High Temperature Furnace DevelopedWe’re pleased to share that in 2024 we completed the construction of a new high-temperature furnace with ultrahigh heating rates. It operates in an ultrahigh-vacuum chamber and uses graphite felt to heat samples, to temperatures confirmed by melting point analysis to be above 2600 °C, at heat rates up to 2400 °C per minute. Since then, we’ve conducted multiple reaction experiments with the system, confirming very rapid densification of various advanced ceramics. We can readily sinter polycrystalline alumina to full density in under two minutes at 1600 °C and have achieved full density in roughly five seconds at higher temperatures. This capability enables us to evaluate new materials, and study their behavior under ultrahigh temperatures and ultrafast heating rates. Construction of the system and its development is an on-going collaboration between Kaplan’s group at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and the Israel Institute of Materials Manufacturing Technologies at the Technion. For an example of rapid sintering of a-Al2O3 at 1700C, see below! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vd1uBv9Xro
Photograph of the new ultra high temperature furnace in Kaplan’s lab. Left to right: Leon Rudnik, Dr. Rachel Marder, Prof. Wayne D. Kaplan, Denis Zolotaryov