Process for producing sintered ITO compact

Abstract

A sintered ITO compact having an ultra-high density of at least 7.08 g/cm.sup.3 is produced by a process wherein an aqueous slurry comprised of indium oxide, tin oxide, a binder, a dispersant and an aqueous medium is cast in a mold, and the thus-obtained cast green body is sintered. The aqueous slurry used is prepared by the steps of: dispersing uniformly a tin oxide powder and a dispersant in an aqueous medium to give an aqueous slurry; allowing the aqueous slurry to stand whereby coarse particles of tin oxide are sedimented; separating by decantation an upper liquid layer of the aqueous slurry containing finely divided particles of tin oxide (preferably, the secondary particle sizes of which are not larger than 4 .mu.m) and the dispersant from a lower liquid layer containing the sedimented coarse particles; and then, incorporating an indium oxide powder and a binder in the separated upper liquid layer containing finely divided tin oxide particles and the dispersant to give an aqueous slurry.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.