The effects of sintering temperature on phase and pore evolution in porcelain tiles

The phase and pore evolution of porcelain tiling against sintering temperature are investigated in this study. A standard porcelain tile composition was sintered at nine different temperatures between 1150 and 1230 °C. The amount of the amorphous phase and the degree of densification show good compatibility with each other; up to 1200 °C they increase gradually, although at this temperature retardation is observed for both properties. Pore size increases up to 1170 °C, after which the amorphous phase becomes the major phase of the tile and pore size begins to reduce below 0.4 µm through the elimination of interconnected porosity. Simultaneous evaluation of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) analyses enables us to obtain the sintering behavior of the porcelain tile.