Preparation of Open-Cell Alumina Ceramic Foam with Uniform Cell Structure Using Plant Seed Template

Abstract

Open-cell Al O ceramic foams with uniform cell structures and dense cell struts were fabricated by centrifugal slip casting using the plant seeds as the templates. The rheological characteristic of Al O slurries with up to 50 vol.% solid content was investigated. The shrinkage matching between the Al O green compact and the plant seeds during drying was studied. The effect of solid contents of slurries on change of green density of cell struts along the height of compacts was analyzed. The drying and sintering schedule of Al O green cakes were studied. The results indicated mass segregation of Al O particles with different sizes during centrifugal process was negligible for slurries with high solid loadings with 50 vol. %. The cell struts of green bodies had high density of 63.8% TD. After sintered at 1500 °C for 2 h, the final products had dense cell struts with high sintered density of 98.9%TD and homogeneous microstructure. The porosity and compressive strength of sintered products was 66.5% and 5.26 MPa, respectively.