Development of Manufacturing Method for Porous SiO₂ Using Decarburization Process

Abstract

The objective of this work is to develop a manufacturing method for porous SiO₂. Porous SiO₂ was fabricated by decarburization after sintered at 1472 K with carbon particles. Porosity of C20SiO₂ (added carbon particles of 20 vol%), C40SiO₂ (added carbon particles of 40 vol%), C60SiO₂ (added carbon particles of 60 vol%) and C80SiO₂ (added carbon particles of 80 vol%) were 20.4 ± 0.4, 40.5 ± 0.4, 60.6 ± 0.3, and 80.7 ± 0.3 vol%, respectively. It is to say that the porosity of the porous SiO₂ could be controlled by less than ±1% of the amount of carbon particles. In addition, pore size of porous SiO₂ could be controlled by the size of the carbon particles. Furthermore, pore-size of the porous SiO₂ depends on the size of carbon particles instead of the quantity of the carbon particles. Decarburization processing method is a simple and economical manufacturing method to controlled porosity and pore size of porous SiO₂.