Templated fabrication of biomorphic alumina-based ceramics with hierarchical structure

Porous oxide ceramics are of special significance in various applications. Calcination of layered double hydroxides (LDHs) often produces very reactive mixed oxides with porous structures. In this work, we describe a biotemplate-assisted approach to fabricate hierarchically porous alumina-based ceramic composites. The porous architectures are designed by controllable growth of LDHs nanosheets on the inner and outer surfaces of morph-Al2O3 in a closed hydrothermal system followed by calcination. The as-prepared alumina-based ceramics and corresponding design strategies developed herein are expected to be applicable to the synthesis of other porous oxide ceramics by utilizing biological structures.