RESEARCH Utilizing the cold sintering process for sintering the thermally decomposable lead dioxide I. A. D. Al-Hydary 1 & A. M. Abdullah 1 & M. A. A. Al-dujaili 1 Received: 1 March 2019 /Revised: 3 August 2019 /Accepted: 8 November 2019 # Australian Ceramic Society 2019 Abstract This work reports, for the first time, the sintering of the thermally decomposable lead dioxide at a temperature lower than 290 °C. Such low-temperature processing is necessary to avoid the transformation of the conductive lead dioxide to the non-conductive lead oxides via the well-known thermal decomposition processes of lead oxides. Such sintering process provides an important opportunity to find a way toward an efficient and cost-effective alternative for platinum electrodes for the electrochemical applications. It has been found that 90% of the theoretical density can be achieved, for lead dioxide body, via cold sintering process with the help of minor additives of saturated lead nitrate solution and 2 M hydrochloric acid solution. The different characterization analyses could not detect any undesirable phase, while the cyclic voltametery, BET, and the contact angle tests confirmed the suitability of the synthesized body for the electrochemical applications. Keywords Lead dioxide . PbO 2 . Cold sintering . Electrodes . Platinum . Thermal decomposition Introduction Platinum, due to its distinct adsorption properties and ease of fabrication, is the most favorite material to be effectively used as electrode in a wide range of applications. These include the fuel cells, batteries, sensors, and detectors [1–3]. Also, it is an important component in the electro- chemical synthesis units of important chemicals including the perchlorates, peroxysulphates, carbohydrates, and ozone. Moreover, it is widely used in studies on the abate- ment of recalcitrant pollutants by electrochemical methods [4]. However, the enormous demand of industry for plati- num and its high cost led to an increasing tendency to find out suitable alternatives for platinum [5]. From the electrochemical point of view, lead dioxide (PbO 2 ) is the most suitable alternative for platinum [6, 7]. It is a cheap inorganic metal-like oxide showing good sta- bility under high electrical potentials in many environments [8]. The lead dioxide electrodes are usually synthesized by electrodeposition of PbO 2 layer on different conductive substrates; these include titanium, graphite, gold, alumi- num, stainless steel, and lead [9–12]. The high cost of tita- nium, gold, and graphite and the warping and adhesive problems of the PbO 2 layer on aluminum, stainless-steel, and lead are still considerable challenges in the use of the PbO 2 -coated electrodes [10, 13, 14]. Sintering, in its various types, is the major manufacturing process for ceramics. However, it could not be used to syn- thesize a dense body of PbO 2 ceramics. This is because of the decomposition of PbO 2 , at low temperature of 290 °C, to a non-conductive phase of lead oxide (Pb 12 O 19 ). Because of this engineering challenge, PbO 2 is considered yet as an unsinterable ceramic [15, 16]. Cold sintering process (CSP) is a new sintering technique which has been recently developed to fabricate ceramics at low temperatures [17]. The “cold sintering” term was coined by Gutmans and Rabinkin for sintering many metals using high pressure and low temperature utilizing the dislocation motion [18]. Jantunen and her colleagues used the CSP to fabricate LiMoO 4 ceramics without using the “cold sintering” term to describe their process [19]. Randall and his research group reinvestigated the CSP and used it to fabricate a vast range of ceramics and ceramic composites [17]. They also went a long way to discover the mechanisms of the CSP and to link their experimental findings to the basic phenomena in the field of nucleation and crystallization of the materials. * I. A. D. Al-Hydary imadali4@uobabylon.edu.iq; imadali4@yahoo.com 1 Department of Ceramics and Building Materials, College of Materials Engineering, University of Babylon, Hillah, Iraq Journal of the Australian Ceramic Society https://doi.org/10.1007/s41779-019-00432-5