The Effects of Process Conditions on Improvement of the Compressive Strengths of Reticulated Porous Zirconia

Abstract

In recent years, there has been growing interest in porous ceramics in many research areas given their superior thermal and chemical resistance capabilities, unlike porous metals and porous polymers. Among the various types of porous ceramics, reticulated porous ceramics can offer significant industrial potential due to the low density and high permeability of these materials. However, industrial applications are somewhat rare owing to the rather low compressive strength of reticulated porous ceramics compared to other types of porous ceramics. Although there have been many studies related to reticulated porous ceramics, few have focused on reticulated porous zirconia. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine how to obtain a high compressive strength in reticulated porous zirconia by optimizing the process conditions of the solid loading level and the particle size and by using additives in a zirconia slurry sample. Furthermore, the authors assess the effects on the microstructure and compressive strength of multiple slurry coating, specifically from one to three. In conclusion, the effect of varying these various process conditions on the resulting improvement in compression strength was investigated, and the compression strength of reticulated porous zirconia was significantly increased from 0.14 to 9.43 MPa. The characteristics investigated include the pore characteristics (pore density, pore size and pore structure), the sintering behavior (linear shrinkage), the mechanical properties (compressive strength), and the dielectric properties (dielectric breakdown strength).