High Porous Alumina Bodies: Production and Properties via Gel- Casting Technique

Porous ceramic materials have found widespread technological and industrial applications from filtration, absorption, catalysts and catalyst supports to lightweight structural components. In the present work, processing is based on the generation of foam from an aqueous suspension of ceramic powder and the subsequent stabilization of the structure by in-situ polymerization of organic monomers. The process offers a number of advantages from other processes. It is shown here, the in-situ polymerization of organic monomers led to a fast solidification and strong, porous bodies. SEM results showed, that the ceramic foams had highly interconnected network of spherical cells with low densities. The cell size distribution was dependent on the density of the samples as well as the polymerization onset time. Good correlations were found between the green microstructure, rheology of the suspensions and the particle interaction forces.