Fabrication of Porous Alumina Ceramics Using Hollow Microspheres as the Pore-forming Agent

Abstract

Porous alumina ceramics with two different pore sizes were fabricated using hollow microspheres as the pore-forming agent. The relative density, total porosity, and microstructure of the obtained alumina ceramics were studied. It was found that the total porosity of sintered samples with different amounts of hollow microsphere content, from 2.0 to 4.0 wt%, was 69.3-75.6%. The interconnected and spherical cell morphology was obtained with 3.0 wt% hollow microsphere content. The resulting ceramics consist of a hierarchical structure with large-sized cells, and small-sized pores in the cell walls. Moreover, the compressive strength of the sintered samples varied from 8.3-11.5 MPa, corresponding to hollow microsphere contents of 2.0-4.0 wt%.