Effect of Various Solid Loadings in Producing Silica-Nickel Oxide (SiO2- NiO) Foams

Abstract

Porous ceramic body is broadly utilized in the engineering discipline in this globalization era especially in the industrial applications. This is due to the advantages of one of the ceramic foams characteristics that can exhibit highly open pore and have a good interconnectivity. At the present study, the formation of Silica-Nickel oxide (SiO2-NiO) foams was developed by using the replication method with various solid loadings of 20wt. %, 25wt. %, 30wt. %, 35wt. % by adding a fixed amount of 5wt. % composition of Nickel Oxide (NiO) and sintered at a temperature of 1250°C. The Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) and Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC) as the binders to bind the particles and as thickening agent for the slurries formation. The cylindrical shape polyurethane acts as a template of the SiO2-NiO foams. The properties of physical and mechanical of the SiO2-NiO foams are being characterized through the morphology analysis via the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Bulk density and apparent porosity tests are determined by adapting the Archimedes Principles. The compressive test has been carried out to identify the compressive strength of SiO2-NiO foams. The results obtained during the morphology analysis show the size of the pores appeared differently between the ranges of 268.81µm to 516.17µm. The result of the density and porosity of the porous SiO2-NiO foams recorded results between the ranges of 0.452g/cm3 to 0.775g/cm3 and 68.5% to 81.2%. This indicates that the variable of solid loading reveals the effect on the properties of the SiO2-NiO foams. Thus, the increasing of the solid loading will decrease the average size of the pores. However, with the decreasing of the average size of the pores will increase the density and the compressive strength of SiO2-NiO foams.