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Sixth generation (6G) wireless networks operating in terahertz frequency region are significant solutions to the increasing number of telecommunication devices and the demand for faster data transmission. However, few dielectric materials exhibiting an ultralow relative dielectric constant (εr), loss tangent (tanδ), and high mechanical strength are found suited for 6G telecommunication. In this study, we developed lightweight ceramic foams by directly sintering glass hollow spheres. The effects of sintering temperatures on their mechanical performance, and terahertz optical and dielectric properties were systematically investigated. The final compositions of ceramic foams contain glass, cristobalite, quartz, and wollastonite. The crystalline content increases with increasing sintering temperature. The ceramic foams sintered at low temperatures of 700–850°C exhibit a high porosity ranging from 74.6% to 87.3%, ultralow εr ranging from 1.41 to 1.83, and tanδ of ∼0.011 at 0.5 THz, as well as high compressive strength ranging from 10.1 to 27.4 MPa, which could be promising materials for 6G telecommunication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microwave and terahertz communications are increasingly significant, however, the lack of material information in terahertz band limits their development. Moreover, few lightweight materials with a high relative dielectric constant (εr) are found suited for satellite communication and wearable devices. In this study, we developed lightweight porous Ba4[(Sm0.1Nd0.9)0.9Bi0.1]28/3Ti18O54 (BSNBT) ceramics exhibiting a total porosity ranging from 6.3% to 26.5% (bulk density ranging from 5.47 to 4.29 g/cm3) and relatively high εr ranging from 85.6 to 56.8, which were obtained by sacrificial template method using polymethyl methacrylate spheres (PMMAs) of varying average particle sizes, from 9 to 34 μm, as sacrificial materials. A high refractive index ranging between 7.5 and 8.9 and a low absorption coefficient of approximately 17 cm−1 at 0.3 THz were obtained for the porous ceramics with different total porosities derived from PMMAs with average particle sizes of 9 and 19 μm. Furthermore, effective medium and Mie scattering theories were applied to understand the effects of porous structure on the dielectric properties in microwave and terahertz frequency ranges, respectively, owing to the different wavelengths in the BSNBT matrix. The results of this study suggest that introducing a porous structure can effectively exploit lightweight microwave dielectric ceramic materials and provide valuable information on their terahertz response mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The weak compressive strength of dried ceramic foams is a disadvantage of fabricating ultralight ceramic foams, especially for the ceramic foams with porosity exceeding 95%. In this study, dried alumina foams were enhanced by agar and PVA-freezing-thawing using sodium dodecyl sulfate as surfactant. It is found that the two additives have no negative influence on adsorption of sodium dodecyl sulfate on alumina particles as well as the hydrophobic character of alumina particles. Stable alumina particle-stabilized foams were prepared with less than 0.5 wt% agar and 1.0 wt% PVA. High additive concentration above the critical values weakens stability of wet foams, which is probably due to the aggregate of alumina particles caused by long-chain molecules connecting. The compressive strength of dried alumina foams has a significant improvement with the employment of agar and PVA-freezing-thawing. The dried foams prepared with 1wt% PVA assisted by freezing-thawing has porosity of 97.1% and compressive strength of 0.16 MPa, which could maintain integrity of dried foams without destruction in the fabricating process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The mechanical strength of highly porous ceramic foams shows significant attenuation with the increase of porosity, especially for ceramic foams with very high porosity level above 95%. Ultra-light bulk composite ceramic foams were fabricated via introducing 20 wt% zirconia in alumina-based cell wall, aiming at improving mechanical strength of alumina based ceramic foams. The preparation and stability of alumina and zirconia particles synergistically stabilized foams were investigated. The obtained bulk ceramic foams manifested an exciting combination of both high porosity above 96% and excellent specific compressive strength, due to their closed pore structure, defect-free cell wall with uniform thickness, and uniformly distributed zirconia grains in alumina matrix. The alumina/zirconia composite ceramic foams with porosity of 96.7% exhibited compressive strength of 1.11 ± 0.07 MPa, which was much higher than that of alumina ceramic foams in the case of same porosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ultralight ceramics with striking mechanical properties and improved pore connectivity could have wide applications in areas ranging from catalyst support to hot gas filtration. However, creating such materials has proven to be a challenging target. This work demonstrated a novel methodology to prepare porous MgAl 2 O 4 ceramics by calcining gelled MgO–Al 2 O 3 –SiO 2 particle-stabilized foams. The striking green strength of dried foams can be achieved as a consequence of MgO hydration and subsequent formation of gelled Mg(OH) 2 and MgO–SiO 2 –H 2 O skeleton. The decomposition of colloidal substance at elevated temperature resulted in the formation of small pores on the cell wall, thus forming the hierarchical porous architecture and improving the pore connectivity. The highly porous MgAl 2 O 4 ceramics fired at 1600°C possessed the integrated properties of ultrahigh porosity (87.0%), improved pore connectivity and satisfactory compressive strength (7.93 MPa), showing great potential to be used in multiple industrial fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanically robust alumina ceramics with low shrinkage were successfully prepared via gelcasting using Isobam as the gelling agent and pre-sintered alumina powder as the raw material for the first time. The influence of amount of pre-sintered alumina powder and powder's pre-sintering temperature on the viscosity of suspension and mechanical properties of low-shrinkage alumina ceramics were systematically investigated. The results showed that low-shrinkage alumina ceramics with flexural strength of 294.5 ± 33.0 MPa, linear shrinkage of 7.79% and relative density of 91.5% can be obtained with the addition of 60 wt% alumina powder pre-sintered at 1600 °C. This convenient and facile approach is promising to fabricate low-shrinkage alumina ceramics with large sizes, high dimensional accuracy and complex shapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract Highlights • Carbamate functional group was grafted onto carbon black surface. • Hierarchical PACs with 3D reticular architectures were fabricated. • PACs showed superior high-temperature particulate matter filtration. Abstract Porous ceramics with high porosity and extensive interconnected pores have great application potential in fields ranging from dye removal to high-temperature particulate matter (PM) capture. However, constructing these materials to achieve efficient filtration is extremely challenging. Herein, a novel strategy to create hierarchical-structured porous alumina ceramics (PACs) with three-dimensional (3D) reticular architecture is reported based on polyurethane (PU) foaming method. To ensure the efficient flow-through filtration, carbamate-grafted carbon black is used as the pore-forming agent and assembled into the porous PU framework. Submicron and micron-sized pores on the cell walls are observed in hierarchical-structured PACs. This unique structure enables a high PM removal efficiency (94.1%) at an ultralow pressure drop (20 Pa). Our work has demonstrated great application potentials of as-prepared PACs as an efficient high-temperature PM filter and provided new insights to develop highly effective filter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract A facile method for preparation of SiC nanofibrous network reinforced hierarchical structured porous Si 3 N 4 based ceramics via annealing Si-Si 3 N 4 binary particle-stabilized foam in coke bed is reported in this work for the first time. The atmosphere created by coke bed enables the fabrication of Si 3 N 4 based porous ceramics at 1450 °C without using sintering additives. As prepared specimens possess a relative high compressive strength due to the partial oxidation of Si 3 N 4 particles. This novel structure with three levels of hierarchy characterized by flexible SiC nanofibrous network, cell walls and unit cells can be characterized. The vaporization of silicon powder results in formation of Si(g), SiO(g) and allows subsequent generation of SiC nanofibrous network, leading to a considerable number of micro-pores on cell walls simultaneously. As-prepared porous ceramics contained 76.7% porosity and had compressive strength of 10.81 MPa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The generation of PVA hydrogel through freeze-thaw technique has been utilized innovatively to complete the forming process of porous Si 3 N 4 ceramics in the present work. In comparison with gelcasting method, green body with comparable strength has been achieved by this novel forming process, which is owing to the strong function of PVA gel caused by the freeze-thaw cycles. Herein, Si 3 N 4 hollow spheres are employed as pore-forming agent in order to achieve closed pores. The morphology of green body illustrates that pores originate from both hollow spheres and the space occupied by ice crystals, and the latter gives rise to the increase of porosity around 10%. Studies on the mechanical, dielectric and thermal properties of porous Si 3 N 4 ceramics dependent on freeze-thaw cycle and freezing time have been performed. It is found that porous ceramics treated for freeze-thaw 2 cycles with freezing time of 24 h present excellent properties, which are promising to be applied as radome materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]