In recent years, there was a huge demand for basic lightweight insulation materials in the metallurgical industry, especially magnesia‐based refractories with low thermal conductivity. Therefore, the preparation of microporous magnesia‐based refractory products through the synthesis of lightweight aggregate and the different grain compositions to meet the supply of light basic refractories is discussed in this paper. The microstructure, pore size distribution, phase composition, coefficient of thermal expansion, thermal conductivity and sintering properties of the microporous magnesia‐based refractory products sintered at 1600°C were characterized. The results indicated that the original salt pseudomorph produced by the thermal decomposition of magnesite fine powder (porogenic agent) provides a uniform microporous structure for the synthesis of lightweight aggregates. The microporous morphology of the periclase phase was controlled by adjusting the content of the porogenic agent. The average pore size of microporous magnesia‐based refractory ranged from 1.5 to 4.2 μm, and the apparent porosity increased from 29.88% to 32.46%. In the same time, the thermal conductivity increased from 0.037 to 0.217 W/(m K), indicating that the introduction of homologous porogenic agents could produce lightweight alkaline refractories with high porosity and low thermal conductivity.
Ceramic foam materials with highly porous microstructure are playing vital role in increasing areas, especially for those with requirements for open channels and superior specific surface area. In this work, a simple and versatile approach to prepare ceramic foams with open pores has been proposed, that is gelation of boehmite nanoparticle‐assembled emulsions. Notably, hierarchical porous microstructure with open channels and uniform pore structure has been built. High specific surface area up to389.4 m2/g is attainable, making it excellent adsorption material when combining the merit of hierarchical pore structure. Furthermore, lattice‐shaped ceramics are prepared via direct ink writing gelled emulsion, displaying the potential of forming lightweight material with complex shape and designable macrostructure. The three‐dimensional (3D) printed foams exhibit multiple open pores, which cover length scale from mm scale, to μm scale and nm scale, making them promising materials in several fields like adsorption and gas filtrations, etc.
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