Preparation of silicon carbide reticulated porous ceramics with enhanced thermal shock resistance and high combustion efficiency.

As the most prospective media material for porous media burners, silicon carbide reticulated porous ceramic (SiC RPC) is required to possess a high porosity to fulfill efficient combustion, as well as exceptional thermal shock resistance to withstand the thermal stress generated during the start-up and shutdown processes. To achieve the strengthening and toughening of highly porous SiC RPC, three-layered struts were constructed, and in-situ whiskers were formed in SiC RPC through vacuum infiltration and sintering under a nitrogen atmosphere in this work. The results indicated that the three-layered struts were formed after the preform was conducted with vacuum infiltration, encompassing a mullite coating, a silicon carbide layer and a mullite inner layer. When Si powder and flake graphite were incorporated into the SiC slurry, numerous SiC whiskers were formed in situ within the SiC skeleton. The formation of SiC whiskers was attributed to the enhancement of SiC RPC, resulting in an increase in CCS from 0.22 MPa to 0.55 MPa. Additionally, the residual strength retention rate after water quenching at 1100 °C was elevated from 41.6 % to 70.2 %. Moreover, the SiC RPC containing SiC whiskers exhibited an impressively high porosity of 83 %, leading to a surface temperature of 688 °C and a heating efficiency of 16.4 °C/min during the combustion process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]