Sintering behavior of alumina rich cordierite porous ceramics

Porous ceramics are increasingly becoming important in particulate gas filt ration. They are an effective alternative to the honeycombed structure in t he case of diesel engines. Porous ceramics are made by infiltrating ceramic slurry into a polymeric sponge followed by drying and heating to burn out the polymeric sponge and obtain a ceramic sponge with large open porosity. In this paper we report optimized drying and sintering conditions for alumi na cordierite porous ceramics. The microwave drying time ranging from 5-30 min depending on the power and the amount of loading. The shapes of the obj ect was maintained in most of the structures. The sintering temperature was optimized around 1380 degreesC. These results were analyzed using XRD data and SEM micrographs. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.