Journal article

Controlling the microstructure of ceramic particle stabilized foams: Influence of contact angle and particle aggregation

C Chuanuwatanakul, C Tallon, DE Dunstan, GV Franks

Soft Matter | Published : 2011

Abstract

Porous cellular alumina ceramic green bodies have been produced by combining the particle stabilized foam method with gelcasting. The suspension foams were stabilized by particles rendered weakly hydrophobic with short chain sulfonate surfactants. Poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) and 2,5-dimethoxy-2,5- dihydrofuran (DHF) were used as the gelcasting reagents. The microstructure (amount of porosity, average pore size, and morphology) of alumina (Al 2O 3) ceramic green body foams has been studied as a function of surfactant concentration and chain length. The morphology of gelled ceramic foams changes from closed cell (bubble like morphology) to open cell (granular morphology) as the surfactant concent..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council


Funding Acknowledgements

C. Chuanuwatanakul gratefully acknowledges the University of Melbourne for the scholarship for her Ph.D. thesis. The authors acknowledge support from the Australian Research Council (Discovery Project DP0879953). The authors also would like to sincerely acknowledge Prof. Ludwig J. Gauckler, Dr Urs T. Gozenbach, Dr Tim N. Hunter, Prof. Erica J. Wanless, Prof. Paolo Colombo and Prof. Robert J. Pugh for the helpful discussions. Thanks to Roger Curtain for the SEM microscopy.