Environmentally benign processing of cordierite foam by combining sol-gel reaction and mechanical foaming

Abstract

Ceramic foams are generally prepared by using sacrificial organic materials as pore-former and generate a large amount of CO₂ during firing due to decomposition of the added organic matter. In our previous study, in order to generate less amount of CO₂, environmentally benign preparation method of silica foam was developed by combining sol-gel reaction of silica sol and mechanical foaming without added organic pore formers. In this work, cordierite foam was prepared on the basis of our preparation method of silica foam, i.e. cordierite foam was obtained by firing silica gel foam containing various oxide powders.