Unique sintering methods and powder deposition techniques were investigated, particularly for their applications in the broad field of functional ceramics. Approaches that can be used to maximize the surface area of porous ceramic thin films were studied and applied to the field of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs).These technologies for synthesizing porous ceramics can be used in several areas of functional ceramics outside of solar cells including applications that require thermal insulation, impact absorption, biomedical devices, gas sensors, or filtration. The techniques for powder deposition that were investigated include free pressure less spark plasma sintering FPSPS, as well as powder deposition of semi-conductive powder slurries. Applications utilizing functional ceramics usually require a particular structure morphology. The investigated examples benefit from an open porous network; however for some cases, samples with high density are required. A relatively new field assisted sintering technique called flash sintering was investigated, and a new process called flash spark plasma sintering was pioneered. These techniques were used to consolidate SiC, a material that is traditionally difficult to densify. Overall, a wide variety of functional ceramics can be created with sintering techniques studied and developed in the present work
