Infiltration processing of reticulated porous alumina ceramics (RPC) from reticulated foam manufacturing is investigated by micro computed tomography. Infiltration is carried out with colloidal alumina slurries. Successful infiltration is found to be a function of the RPCs starting microstructure and the particle size of the alumina in the colloidal infiltration system. Suitable infiltration conditions are specified. As a result, RPCs with a low relative density show a fivefold compressive strength after infiltration, as compared to their non-infiltrated RPC counterparts. The highest strength of infiltration processed alumina RPCs at a porosity of 90% is found to be 1.6 MPa, and besides a significant increase of the compressive strength, the thermal conductivity is improved to be 1.5 W m À1 K À1 after infiltration.
The present work describes the combination of the well-established dispersion infiltration of the hollow struts in reticulated porous ceramics (RPCs) and the salt solution infiltration of the remaining strut porosity. This approach is applied on alumina foams, which are loaded subsequently with a dispersion of sub-micrometer alumina particles and a ZrO(NO3)2 solution. The zirconyl nitrate is converted into a ZrO2 transformation toughening phase during the final sintering step. As a consequence of the complex microstructure evolution during the consecutive infiltration cycles, the reinforcement phase concentrates selectively at the weak spots of RPC structures—namely, the hollow strut cavities and longitudinal cracks along the struts. As a consequence, a severe improvement of the compressive strength is observed: The average compressive strength, normalized to a porosity of 91.6 vol.%, is 1.47 MPa for the Al2O3/ZrO2 infiltrated foams, which is an improvement by 40% with respect to alumina-only loaded foams (1.05 MPa) or by 206% compared to uninfiltrated alumina RPCs (0.48 MPa). The compressive strength results are correlated to infiltration parameters and the properties of the infiltration fluids, for example the rheological behavior and the size of the Zr solute species in the respective ZrO(NO3)2 solution.
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