Highly permeable macroporous cordierite ceramics with controlled microstructure produced by particle-stabilized emulsions with a reactive thermal treatment

Macroporous cordierite ceramics, comprising hierarchical microstructures, are produced by a method of particle-stabilized emulsions, combined with a followed reactive thermal treatment. The microstructure is tailored by altering sintering temperature and solid content in the emulsion templates. Pore throats generate in-situ by introducing magnesite in templates, in contrast to conventional methods, which use either surfactants or depending on thin film contact. Moreover, microstructural evolution of samples is studied by DTA/TG, XRD, and SEM analyses. The results of analyses show that the formation of much more pore throats is closely related to the release of gas from the raw materials and volume shrinkage. The optimal process conditions are a temperature of 1300 °C and a solid content of 30 vol.%. The as-prepared sample displays a nitrogen permeability of ∼1.8 × 10−11 m2. The method shows great promise for producing many other highly permeable ceramics using pore former agents in the emulsion templates.