The key concept of nanopowder agglomerate sintering (NAS) is to enhance material transport by controlling the powder interface volume of nanopowder agglomerates. Using this concept, we developed a new approach to full density processing for the fabrication of pure iron nanomaterial using Fe nanopowder agglomerates from oxide powders. Full density processing of pure iron nanopowders was introduced in which the powder interface volume is manipulated in order to control the densification process and its corresponding microstructures. The full density sintering behavior of Fe nanopowders optimally size-controlled by wet-milling treatment was discussed in terms of densification process and microstructures.

This study has been performed on the full density sintering of Fe nanopowder and the surface hardening by plasma ion nitriding. The Fe sintered part was fabricated by pressureless sintering of the Fe nanopowder at in which the nanopowder agglomerates were controlled to have 0.5-5 sized agglomerates with 150 nm Fe nanopowders. The green compact with 46% theoretical density(T.D.) showed a homogeneous microstructure with fine pores below 1 . After sintering, the powder compact underwent full densification process with above 98%T.D. and uniform nanoscale microstructure. This enhanced sintering is thought to be basically due to the homogeneous microstructure in the green compact in which the large pores are removed by wet-milling. Plasma ion nitriding of the sintered part resulted in the formation of '- equilibrium phase with about 12 thickness, leading to the surface hardening of the sintered Fe part. The surface hardness was remarkably increased from 176 for the matrix to 365 .