Influence of starch type on characteristics of porous 3Y-ZrO2 prepared from a direct consolidation casting method

• Published in: Materials research (São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil) Vol. 14; no. 1; pp. 39 - 45
• Main Authors: Garrido, L B, Albano, M P, Genova, L A, Plucknett, K P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Portuguese
• Published: ABM, ABC, ABPol 01.01.2011; Associação Brasileira de Metalurgia e Materiais (ABM); Associação Brasileira de Cerâmica (ABC); Associação Brasileira de Polímeros (ABPol)
• Subjects: Ceramics; Consolidation; Corn; ENGINEERING, CHEMICAL; MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY; METALLURGY & METALLURGICAL ENGINEERING; Microstructure; Porosity; porous ceramics; Sintering; starch consolidation casting; starch types; Starches; zirconia; Zirconium dioxide; zirconia; porous ceramics; starch types; starch consolidation casting
• ISSN: 1516-1439; 1980-5373; 1980-5373
• DOI: 10.1590/S1516-14392011005000016

Starch consolidation casting has been used to produce porous ceramics with complex shapes at a relatively low production cost. Porous 3Y-ZrO2 ceramics were produced using two types of starch (corn and potato). Concentrated (50-52 vol%) aqueous suspensions of the different 3Y-ZrO2-starch mixtures (i.e. starch to zirconia weight ratios between 0.20 and 0.52) were thermally consolidated and the effect of the type and amount of added starch on properties of resultant dried product was examined. After the burnout of starch granules, the effect of sintering temperature, varying between 1000 and 1500 C, on the porosity evolution, interconnection and morphology of pores and microstructure of final ceramic was studied by water absorption measurements, Hg porosimetry and SEM. A typical microstructure of the ceramic sintered at 1500 C consisted of large nearly spherical pores (created by starch) uniformly distributed in a dense ZrO2 matrix. As the content of starch in the dried product (expressed as volume fraction) Xst was increased from 0.23 to 0.65, the porosity of the ceramic sintered at 1500 C increased from 38 to 52 vol% for corn starch, while it achieved 50 to 54 vol% for potato starch; thus, lower Xst of potato starch developed a porous zirconia with higher porosity. In this case, the pore structure contained pores having sizes > 50 micron and was completely interconnected, while for those prepared using corn starch the pore interconnection occurred for Xst > 0.50.