Thermal Conductivities of LaPO₄/Al₂O₃ Composites Fabricated by SPS

The thermal conductivities of the LaPO(4)/Al(2)O(3) composites that were fabricated by spark plasma sintering (SPS) were determined. The results revealed that their thermal conductivities displayed nearly a slow decrease with increasing temperature from 25 degrees C to 800 degrees C, having the classic 1/T dependence. In addition, the conductivities of the composites decrease monotonously with increasing the LaPO(4) content because of the lower thermal conductivity of LaPO(4). The calculated conductivities of the composites using Maxwell equation match well the experimental values at both the end members of LaPO(4) and Al(2)O(3) being the continuous phase, but showing a little deviation at intermediate composition.