Fabrication of Porous Anorthite Ceramics by Environmental-Friendly Foam Gel–casting Method

Single-phase anorthite porous ceramics were in-situ prepared by a foam gel–casting method with CaCO₃, α-Al₂O₃ and SiO₂ as raw materials and environmental-friendly gelatin as a gel. The influence of gelatin amount on the phase composition, microstructure and properties (i.e., porosity, density, compressive strength, and thermal conductivity) of the samples was investigated. The amount of gelatin has no effect on the phase composition of the prepared material, but it affects the properties. The total porosity decreases from 89.7% to 88.0%, the bulk density increases from 0.28 g/cm₃ to 0.33 g/cm₃, the compressive strength increases from 1.02 MPa to 2.54 MPa, and the thermal conductivity increases from 0.038 W/(m·K) to 0.059 W/(m·K) as the gelatin amount increases from 6% to 12%. It is indicated that porous anothite ceramics with a low density, a high strength and a low thermal conductivity could be prepared by this promising method.