l-Ascorbic acid as a new activator in fabrication of ceramics by techniques using in situ polymerization

The paper reports the development of a new system applicable in shaping techniques using in situ polymerization. The system is based on saccharides derivatives and allows to eliminate harmful processing agents from ceramic slurry. Instead of commonly applied 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate or acrylamide (monomers) and N,N,N′,N′-tetramethylethylenediamine (activator) the compounds based on glucose were used. As a monomer 3-O-acryloyl-d-glucose was applied. As a new activator l-ascorbic acid (also known as vitamin C) was used. Research was carried out for YSZ. As initiators ammonium persulfate and hydrogen peroxide were used. The new system was studied in terms of zeta potential, pH and rheological measurements. Ceramic samples were prepared by gelcasting and gel-tape casting methods. The experiments showed that l-ascorbic acid used as the activator has positive influence on rheological properties of suspensions with YSZ and together with ammonium persulfate allows to form defect free ceramic bodies with a homogenous composition.