Fabrication of Porous Mullite Ceramics with High Porosity Using Foam-Gelcasting

In this paper, porous mullite ceramics with an apparent porosity up to 81 % were fabricated by foam-gelcasting using mullite powder as raw material with solid loading of 40 vol.%. The monomers content and sitering temperature have obvious effect on the properties of porous mullite ceramics. The apparent porosity of the prepared samples was in the range of 75~82%, compressive strength, was in the range of 3.0~16.02 MPa, and thermal conductivity was between 0.14 and 0.47 W/(m•K). A complex porous microstructure was formed, where large spherical pores contained small cellular pores on their internal walls.