Fabrication and Characterization of Porous Mullite Ceramics

Porous mullite ceramics with varying pore former are prepared by using naphthalene as the pore former. These samples are sintered at 1400oC, 1500oC and 1600oC. The pore former used in the range of 0% to 40%. The effect of pore former on the porosity generation is studied in detail. It is observed that with the increase of naphthalene content the apparent porosity increases up to a range of 60-70%. The effect of pore former on mullite phase formation is also analysed in detail. The microstructural study and mechanical properties are also covered. From the knowledge of the earlier studies it is known that the incorporation of sintering additives helps in improvement of the mechanical properties of ceramic sample. In this work an attempt is made to find out the effect of incorporation of TiO2 as the dopant in porous mullite sample. It is observed that TiO2 additive helps in improving the strength of porous samples which is important for application purpose