Publications

Creation and characterization of magnesium oxide macroporous ceramics

Mondy, L.A.; DiAntonio, Christopher D.; Chavez, Tom C.; Hughes, Lindsey G.; Grillet, Anne M.; Roberts, Christine C.; Ingersoll, David I.

We examine several methods to create a sheet of magnesium oxide (MgO) macroporous ceramic material via tape casting. These methods include the approach pioneered by Akartuna et al.1 in which an oil/water emulsion is stabilized by surface-modified metal oxide particles at the droplet interfaces. Upon drying, a scaffold of the self-assembled particles is strong enough to be removed from the substrate material and sintered. We find that this method can be used with MgO particles surface modified by short amphiphilic molecules. This approach is compared with two more traditional methods to induce structure into a green ceramic: 1) creation of an MgO ceramic slip with added pore formers, and 2) sponge impregnation of a reticulated foam with the MgO slip. Green and sintered samples made using each method are hardness tested and results compared for several densities of the final ceramics. Optical and SEM images of the materials are shown.