Novel preparation of a porous composite insulating scaffold from forsterite and sodium carbonate media

Porous composite insulating scaffolds were prepared from mixtures of forsterite, salt (Na2CO3), and phenolic resin by sintering at 900 to 1 100 °C for 10 h, and the sintering behaviour and mechanical properties were examined. The results show that the changes in temperature did not significantly affect the phases present in the samples. However, changing the Na2CO3 content of a sample will change its phase composition. When the Na2CO3 content was 40 wt.% and sintering undertaken at 1 000 °C, the apparent porosity of the sample was 57 %, and its strength was 3.1 MPa. The large number of pores in the samples had diameters of approximately one micron, while the mesopores had diameters concentrated over the interval of 3 to 5 nm.