Spark plasma sintering (SPS), commonly also defined as field assisted sintering (FAST) or pulsed electric current sintering (PECS), is a novel pressure assisted pulsed electric current sintering process utilizing ON-OFF DC pulse energizing. Due to the repeated application of an ON-OFF DC pulse voltage and current between powder materials, the spark discharge point and the Joule heating point (local high temperature state) are transferred and dispersed to the overall specimen. The SPS process is based on the electrical spark discharge phenomenon, and is a high efficient, energy saving technique with a high heating rate and a short holding time. The problem of rapid grain growth of nanomaterials during sintering can be inhibited to some extent by using the SPS technique. The SPS can be used for diverse novel bulk material applications, but is particularly suitable for processing of nanomaterials.

We invite investigators to contribute original research articles as well as review articles on nanomaterials including nanoceramics, nanometals, nanopolymers, and nanocomposties processed by the spark plasma sintering. We are interested in articles of nanopowders sintered by SPS and nanometer grain-sized (below 100 nm) dense or porous solids prepared by SPS. The fundamental investigations on the mechanisms of densification and grain growth during SPS, as well as the microstructures, mechanical and functional properties of the SPS processed nanomaterials are particularly interested. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Recent developments in SPS technology
• Advances in nanomaterials (ceramics, metals, polymers, and composites) processed by SPS
• Numerical simulation of SPS processing of nanomaterials
• Mechanisms of densification and grain growth of nanomaterials during SPS
• Microstructures evolution of nanomaterials during SPS
• Mechanical properties of the SPS processed nanomaterials
• Functional properties of the SPS processed nanomaterials
• Applications of the SPS processed nanomaterials

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jnm/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/jnm/nps/ according to the following timetable: