International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics

Education History

Research History

Yoshio Sakka successfully developed many types of nano-particles, such as metal, ceramics, their mixed and composite particles, by a DC-plasma method that developed by his group. Also, he developed new wet-chemical methods, such as nano-explosion method, new sol-gel processing, etc., by which several kinds of ceramic mono-dispersed particles have been prepared. In the processing of ceramics by sintering, fine particles are desired not only to reduce the sintering temperature, but also to obtain fine-grained microstructures. By using the technique, he produced superplastic alumina that elongated above 550%. This is the first achievement in the world. Then he produced several kinds of high-strain-rate superplastic ceramics. He has demonstrated fabrication of porous ceramics with controlled pore size by hetero-coagulated suspension of ceramics and polymer. In this case the pore size and porosity could be easily tailored by varying the polymer size and the volume ration of polymer/ceramic particles. He has developed new kind of method for making textured ceramics. Here, the colloidal processing, such as slip casting and electrophoretic deposition, is conducted under a strong magnetic field (10 T). This process technique confers several advantages and it is possible for this type of processing to be applied to many non-cubic ceramics. By the above establishment, he received many awards, such as Furath award from American Ceramic Society (May, 2000), Ichimura academic award (April, 2002) academic achievement from Japanese Ceramic Society (May, 2005), Chinese Ceramic Society Award (Oct., 2005), JIM Meritorious Award from Japan Institute of Metals (March, 2007), etc. He has been serving as a Co-editor of Science and Technology of Advanced Materials, and a Deputy Editor for Acta Materialia / Scripta Materialia. From these facts, he can be regarded as one of the top world class scientists in the ceramics and materials science discipline.

Selected Papers

1. X. Zhu, Y. Sakka, Y. Zhou and K. Hirao, 'Processing and properties of sintered reaction-bonded silicon nitride with Y₂O₃-MgSiN₂: Effects of Si powder and Li₂O addition' Acta Mater., 55, (2007) 5581-5591.
2. S. Furumi, H. Fudouzi,H. T. Miyazaki and Y. Sakka,'Flexible polymer colloidal-crystal lasers with a light-emitting planar defect' Adv. Mater., 19, (2007) 2067 - 2072.
3. S. Horii, T. Kumagai, T. Uchikoshi, T. S. Suzuki, Y. Sakka , J. I. Shimoyama and K. Kishio 'Improvement of thermoelectric performance in magnetically c-axis-oriented bismuth-based cobaltites,' Scripta Mater., 57, (2007) 333-336.
4. M. Kimura, K. Shiratsuyu, A. Ando, T. S. Suzuki and Y. Sakka, 'Layer structure of textured CaBi₄Ti₄O₁₅ ceramics fabricated by slip casting in high magnetic field,' J. Am. Ceram. Soc., 90, (2007) 1463-1466.
5. T. S. Suzuki, M. Kimura, A. Ando, Y. Sakka and Y. Sakabe, 'Highly controlled orientation of CaBi₄Ti₄O₁₅ using a strong magnetic field,' Appl. Phys. Lett., 89, (2006) No. 132902.
6. Y. Yamauchi, M. Sawada, A. Sugiyama, T. Osaka, Y. Sakka and K. Kuroda, 'Magnetically induced orientation of mesochannels in 2D-hexagonal mesoporous silica films,' J. Mater. Chem., 16, (2006) 3693-3700.
7. O. Vasylkiv and Y. Sakka, 'Nano-Explosion Synthesis of Multi-Metal Oxide Ceramic Nanopowders', Nano Lett., 5, (2005)2598-2604.
8. E. Guilmeau, D. Chateigner, T. S. Suzuki and Y. Sakka, 'Rietveld Texture Analysis of Alumina Ceramics by Neutron Diffraction', Chem Mater, 17, (2005)102-106.
9. T. Uchikoshi, T. S. Suzuki, H. Okuyama and Y. Sakka, 'Control of Crystalline Texture in Polycrystalline Alumina Ceramics by Electrophoretic Deposition in a Strong Magnetic Field', J. Mater. Res., 19, (2004)1487-1491.
10. Kim, BN, Hiraga, K, Morita, K,Sakka, Y, 'A high-strain-rate superplastic ceramic', Nature, 413, (2001) 288-291.