Abstract
Calcium aluminate cement (CAC) is broadly used as a binder for ceramic materials as it can provide suitable setting times, green mechanical strength and refractoriness. When applied to directly-foamed macroporous refractories, this binder can set the fresh foam before bubble coalescence, favouring higher porosity. Nevertheless, its large particles tend to thermodynamically stabilize bigger bubbles, resulting in samples with larger pores and broader cell size distribution, which is undesirable for high-temperature thermal insulation applications. An alternative to overcome this issue is CAC milling, which can be carried out in water by using sodium gluconate (SG) to produce a stable suspension of this binder. By using 1 wt% of SG, it was possible to grind the CAC in water for 6 h without hydration. When applied to macroporous samples, milled CAC provided faster setting kinetics and in situ formation of hibonite after firing. Additionally, smaller average pore size and higher cold crushing strength were attained when used for the production of ultrastable foam-derived refractories, whereas less significant changes were observed for samples based on surfactant-stabilized foams. The study also showed that the CaO/Al2O3 particle size ratio was an important feature to control the shrinkage/expansion effects after sintering, based on the morphological aspect of the resulting hibonite (CA6) phase.
Published Version
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