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In this video, Dinesh Agrawal, professor of materials and director the Penn State’s Microwave Processing and Engineering Center, provides an overview of the growing use of microwaves to make a variety of products and materials at faster rates, cheaper processing costs and, often, with improved properties. As Agrawal notes in a paper written for the Bulletin of the American Ceramic Society, the speed and efficiency of microwave technology makes the process “ecologically friendly.”

Microwaves can cut processing times by 90 percent, enhance sintering and reaction kinetics (providing much finer and uniform microstructures) and often create new materials not possible with conventional methods.

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  • Energy
  • Material Innovations