Forming and Application of Porous Ceramics by Gelcasting

摘要

The fabrication of complex-shaped ceramic parts in large quantities has been limited to the conventional ceramic conventional forming processes,such as injection molding,slip casting.Gelcasting is a novel forming method for making complex-shaped ceramic bodies.In this process,a ceramic powder slurry is prepared with a water-based monomer solution and then polymerized in situ after casting into a mold,producing a macromolecular network to hold the ceramic particles.The dried body in the presence of a cross-linked polymer network is rather strong and can be machined so as to obtain more complex shaped products.Porous ceramics,which have high potential for applications related to the environmental and energetic,are also fabricated by gelcasting.Foams can be produced by mechanical frothing in an N_2 controlling system.The incorporation of porosity in ceramic microstructures with tailored pore size and its attribute controlled in many possible ways.In this paper,a principle of gelcasting process and applications of porous ceramics fabricated by gelcasting are introduced.