Planar faults on the basal planes of zinc oxide are formed during sintering with 0.1 mol% antimony oxide at 1200°C. Spatially resolved energy‐dispersive X‐ray analysis and electron energy loss spectroscopy microanalysis reveal the presence of significant quantities of Sb. Quantification of the data suggests that up to a monolayer of Sb is distributed uniformly on the faulted zone.

A transmission electron microscope investigation of a ZnO powder and low‐temperature air‐sintered pellets with small additions of Sb2O3 was conducted in order to study the thin Sb‐rich film on the surfaces of ZnO particles. This film was found to be noncrystalline at temperatures below 700°C, and partially crystalline or completely crystalline above this temperature. An oriented overgrowth of the spinel Zn7Sb2O12 was observed on the prismatic planes as well as on the basal planes of ZnO crystallites. It is shown that these coherently overgrown spinel films are responsible for the inhibition of grain growth at high temperatures.

We have found that the microstructure we observed was influenced by rapid quenching, resulting from different stages of cooling and remaining after the plastic deformation caused by quenching. Different stages of tantalum carbide precipitation in α -CoTaC solid solution have been seen depending on the position in a large disc shaped specimen and different types of defects were indicated. Orientation relations were determined between TaC and α-CoTaC and also between α-CoTaC FCC solid solution and e-CoTaC HCP solid solution.