Effects of surfactant and particle size on the microstructure and strength of Si3N4 foams with high porosity

Abstract

AbstractThe highly porous Si3N4 ceramic foams were prepared by direct foaming with mixed surfactants. The surface tension and viscosity of slurries were tailored by different carbon chain length of surfactants and different mean Si3N4 particle size to achieve the pore size controlling. The nearly linear relationship between the pore size and the ratio of surface tension to viscosity was observed, which indicates that the pore size could be precisely tailored by the slurry properties. Si3N4 ceramic foams with porosity of nearly 94%, mean pore size of 110–230 µm, and compressive strength of 1.24–3.51 MPa were obtained.