| Abstract Scope |
The Hamaker constant is utilized by ceramic engineers to determine suspension stability and control the microstructure of the final ceramic product; however, calculation of the Hamaker constant is not trivial due to the need to understand the permittivity of each material (particles and medium) as a function of frequency. Therefore, calculation of the Hamaker constant has only been completed for extensively studied systems (e.g. alumina and water). Newly developed ceramic materials do not have the required data to calculate the Hamaker constant and previous methods of estimating the Hamaker constant have yielded poor results. A new method of estimating the Hamaker constant of any ceramic particle in water using only the dielectric constant, refractive index, bandgap, and FTIR data has been developed that correlates well with the exact Hamaker constant calculation allowing for control of the ceramic processing and, subsequently, the final product microstructure of newly developed ceramic materials. |