Fabrication of Microstructure-controlled Advanced Ceramics by External Field-applied Colloidal Processing

Abstract

Utilization of external vector fields for colloidal processing of ceramics was investigated to fabricate microstructure-controlled ceramics. Electric and magnetic fields were selected as external fields applied to stable colloidal suspensions. The following three sub-themes were set up in this research: (i) Elucidation of various factors which affect deposition characteristics of ceramic particles by electrophoretic deposition in aqueous and non-aqueous media, (ii) Fabrication of crystalline-textured ceramic monoliths by slip casting in a strong magnetic field, (iii) Control of crystalline texture in ceramic laminate composites synthesized by electrophoretic deposition in a strong magnetic field. It was shown the utilization of external field has made great advances of colloidal processing technique. Especially, it was demonstrated that the simultaneous application of the electric and magnetic fields, electrophoretic deposition in a strong magnetic field, enables to fabricate microstructure-controlled ceramics with crystalline texture.