J. Am. Ceram. Soc.
, 89 [12] 3646–3653 (2006)
Journal
Effect of Polystyrene Addition on Freeze Casting of Ceramic/Camphene
Slurry for Ultra-High Porosity Ceramics with Aligned Pore Channels
Young-Hag Koh,*,w Eun-Jung Lee, Byung-Ho Yoon, Ju-Ha Song, and Hyoun-Ee Kim
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea
Department of Dental Biomaterials, School of Dentistry, Dankook University, Cheonan 330-714, South Korea
We investigated the effect of polystyrene (PS) addition on the
freezing behavior of a very dilute alumina/camphene slurry with
an initial solid loading of 5 vol% for the fabrication of ultra-high
porosity ceramics with aligned pore channels. To accomplish
this, slurries with various PS contents (10, 20, and 30 vol% in
relation to the alumina powders) were prepared by ball milling at
601C and then cast into molds at a constant temperature of
201C. After removing the frozen camphene, the samples were
heat treated to burn out the organic phases and sinter the alu-
mina walls. The addition of the PS binder remarkably enhanced
the green strength of the sample, making it possible to handle it
without difficulty. All of the sintered samples showed ultra-high
porosities of 488% without the collapse of the porous structure,
wherein the pore channels were completely interconnected.
Three distinctive zones having different pore structures were ob-
served, viz. the outer shell with elongated pores, the inner zone
with long aligned pore channels, and the center with equiaxed
pores. The content of the PS polymer significantly affected the
pore morphologies in the three distinctive zones. In addition, it
was found that the addition of the PS polymer was highly bene-
ficial to the alignment of the pore channels.
I. Introduction
P OROUS ceramics with open pore structures are of particular
interest and importance as they have excellent permeability
and a large surface area. These superior properties allow them to
be extensively used in diverse fields, such as bone scaffolds,1
porous piezoelectric ceramics,2 electrodes in fuel cells,3 ceramic
filters,4 and supports for catalysts.4 In order to broaden their
range of applications, these materials should preferably have not
only ultra-high porosity and large interconnections but also
dense ceramic networks to enhance their mechanical properties.
Nowadays, various manufacturing techniques are available
for producing highly porous ceramics. These methods include
the replication of polymer foams by ceramic dip coating,5,6 the
foaming of aqueous ceramic powder suspensions,7–10 the pyr-
olysis of preceramic precursors,11 and the firing of ceramic pow-
der compacts with pore-forming fugitive phases.12,13 Each of
these methods has its own merits and drawbacks. In short, only
a few methods are capable of tailoring the porosities of the cer-
amics, while, at the same time, preserving large interconnections
and strong ceramic networks. For example, reticulated porous
ceramics produced by the polymer foam replication method can
J. Halloran—contributing editor
Manuscript No. 21760. Received May 4, 2006; approved August 9, 2006.
This research was supported by a grant (code no. 05K1501-01510) from ‘‘Center for
Nanostructured Materials Technology’’ under ‘‘21st Century Frontier R&D Programs’’ of
the Ministry of Science and Technology, Korea.
*Member, American Ceramic Society.
w
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. e-mail: kohyh@snu.ac.kr
3646
DOI: 10.1111/j.1551-2916.2006.01311.x
r 2006 The American Ceramic Society
Hae-Won Kim
have ultra-high porosity with large interconnections; however,
these materials often have poor mechanical properties because
of the defects generated during the pyrolysis of the polymer
foam.6 In addition, this method is only suitable for generating
ceramics with relatively large pores having a size of several hun-
dreds of microns.
Recently, the freeze-casting (or drying) process has emerged
as a good candidate for the above-mentioned preferred method,
as it can produce interconnected pore channels in a tailored
manner, e.g. aligned pore channels on a scale of several microns,
which offers superior mechanical properties and functions.14
This method fundamentally makes full use of the three-dimen-
sionally interconnected frozen vehicle network, which sublimes
and in turn leaves pore channels in the ceramic body. In this
method, the ceramic slurry is normally prepared by ball milling
and then cast into the mold at a temperature below its freezing
temperature (i.e., the solidification temperature of the molten
vehicle). To date, water14–16 and camphene17–19 have been suc-
cessfully used as freezing vehicles.
More recently, it was found that the camphene-based freeze-
casting method could be used to freeze very dilute ceramic slur-
ries with initial solid loadings of r20 vol% using the camphene
as the vehicle, which, accordingly, allowed ultra-high porosity
ceramics (66%–90%) with completely interconnected pore
channels20 to be produced. However, the green sample obtained
after the removal of the frozen camphene was often relatively
weak, making it difficult to handle. Therefore, in this study, we
added polystyrene (PS) polymer as an organic binder to a dilute
alumina/camphene slurry and investigated its effect on the de-
velopment of the pore structure. To accomplish this, various
contents of PS binder (10, 20, and 30 vol% in relation to the
alumina powders) were added to dilute slurries with an initial
low solid loading of 5 vol%. The fabricated samples were char-
acterized by evaluating the development of the pore structure
(the pore shape, alignment, porosity, and degree of intercon-
nection) and the densification of the alumina walls.
II. Experimental Procedure
(1) Starting Materials
The details of the camphene-based freeze-casting method used
for the fabrication of ultra-high porosity ceramics with com-
pletely interconnected pore channels are well documented
in our previous report.20 Commercially available alumina
powder (AKP-30, Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan)
and camphene (C10H16, Alfa Aesar/Avocado Organics, Ward
Hill, MA) were used as the ceramic material and the freezing
vehicle, respectively. In addition, PS ([ CH2CH(C6H5) ]n,
Mw 5 230 000 g/mol, Sigma Aldrich, St. Louis, MO) and oligo-
meric polyester (Hypermer KD-4; UniQema, Everburg, Bel-
gium) were used as the organic binder and the dispersant,
respectively.
December 2006 Effect of Polystyrene Addition on Freeze Casting of Ceramic/Camphene Slurry 3647

Table I. Composition of Ceramic/Camphene Slurries Used in first at 6001C for 3 h to remove the organic phases and then at
This Study 14001C for 5 h to sinter the alumina walls.

Alumina Camphene PS Dispersant PS:alumina

Denotation (g) (g) (g) (g) (vol %) (4) Characterizations
Thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) behavior of the
10PS 2.5 10 0.075 0.075 10 PS/camphene solution with 10 wt% PS content was examined
20PS 2.54 10 0.171 0.076 20 using optical microscopy (Leica DM LP; Leica Microsystems,
30PS 2.54 10 0.293 0.076 30 Wetzlar, Germany) equipped with a heating stage. The sample
 Theoretical density (g/cm3): alumina (3.94), camphene (0.83 at 601C), PS was prepared by dropping the solution onto a slide glass and
(1.05), dispersant (0.9). PS, polystyrene. cover glass. The fabricated samples were characterized by evalu-
ating the development of the pore structure (the pore shape,
alignment, porosity, and degree of interconnection) and the
densification of the alumina walls, using optical microscopy
(2) Slurry Preparation (PMG3, Olympus, Tokyo, Japan) and scanning electron micro-
Firstly, dilute alumina/camphene slurries containing 5 vol% of scopy (SEM, JSM-6330, JEOL Techniques, Tokyo, Japan).
alumina powders well dispersed in the molten camphene with The weight change and chemical reactions of the green sample
the assistance of 3 wt% of dispersant and with various PS con- after the removal of the camphene were characterized using a
tents (10, 20, and 30 vol% in relation to the ceramic powders) thermogravimetric analyzer (TG-DTA, Columbus, OH) by
were prepared by ball milling at 601C. The compositions of the heating it up to 10001C at a heating rate of 51C/min in air.
alumina/camphene slurries used in this study are summarized in The pore structure was directly observed from the fractured
Table I. All of the prepared slurries were found to have excellent samples. In addition, in order to evaluate the porosity, pore size,
flowability for freeze casting, regardless of their PS content. and degree of interconnection, the samples were infiltrated with
an epoxy resin (Spurrs epoxy, Polysciences Inc., Warrington,
PA) and then cured at 701C for 24 h. Thereafter, the samples
were ground and analyzed using SEM. The porosity was calcu-
(3) Freeze Casting
lated from the digitally colored SEM images of the epoxy-filled
The prepared warm slurries were then poured into polyethylene sample.
molds with an inner diameter of 12.5 mm placed in a water bath
at a constant temperature of 201C (Fig. 1(A)). Immediately after
freeze casting, solidification took place starting from the mold
wall, which was cooler than the cast slurry. Under these condi- III. Results
tions, the heat of the warm slurry dissipated through the solid, (1) Structural Stability of Green Sample
causing the camphene to grow dendritically toward the center of
the cast body (Fig. 1(B)). Typically, less than 30 min was re- A series of recent works has demonstrated that the camphene-
quired for the complete solidification of the cast body, i.e., the based freeze-casting method is very useful to produce not only
freezing of the molten camphene. Before demolding, the frozen dense21 but also porous ceramics.17–20 Particularly, our recent
body was placed in a cool atmosphere at around 301C to en- work showed that it was possible to achieve an ultra-high por-
hance its green strength. The green body was removed from the osity of B90% by freezing a very dilute ceramic slurry with an
mold which had two pre-cuts for easy demolding and placed on initial solid loading of as low as 5 vol%.20 Nevertheless, the
a polyurethane sponge in a flowing air atmosphere at room problem of the intrinsic weak strength of the green sample after
temperature for 48 h to sublime the frozen camphene. The sam- the removal of the frozen camphene still remains to be solved.
ples were transferred to an alumina crucible, and heat treated One of the most simple and useful ways of accomplishing this
would be to incorporate a suitable organic binder into the cer-
amic/camphene slurry. Camphene has been infrequently used
as a solvent to dissolve polymers, including polypropylene22
(A) Experimental Setup and ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene.23 However, these
materials require a relatively high temperature to achieve
homogenous solutions, which makes it difficult to use them
PE Mold Warm Slurry
(T = 60°C)
for our freeze-casting process. Thus, we examined several alter-
native polymers and found that PS polymer could be com-
pletely dissolved in molten camphene at 601C with ease. Other
polymers, such as PP and polyethylene (PE), did not dissolve
Cool Water Bath at 601C.
(T = 20°C) The incorporation of the PS polymer as the organic binder
remarkably enhanced the structural stability of the green sam-
ple. In other words, without the addition of the PS polymer, the
green sample readily collapsed with the application of even a
(B)
small mechanical force. The strength of the green sample was
Freezing Direction
considerably increased by incorporating the PS polymer into the
ceramic/camphene slurry. All of the fabricated green samples
Heat Flow showed excellent shape tolerance after the removal of the cam-
Camphene Growth phene and a sufficiently high green strength for easy handling. It
is reasonable to suppose that the green strength of the sample
will increase with increasing PS content.

(2) Removal of Organic Phases

Fig. 1. Schematic illustrations showing (A) the experimental setup used
for the freeze casting of the alumina/camphene slurry at a controlled
temperature of 201C and (B) the directions of heat flow and camphene
growth, where the camphene grows dendritically toward the center of
the cast body.
In order to produce the desired porous ceramics without gener-
ating any defects, the organic phases (the PS binder and the
dispersant) must be completely removed before sintering the
alumina walls. To accomplish this, the weight change and chem-
ical reactions of the green sample after the removal of the cam-
3648 Journal of the American Ceramic Society—Koh et al. Vol. 89, No. 12

(A) TGA and DTA Results

100
Organic Remained [wt %]

80

Exothermic
60
Dynamic
Organic Removal
40

20

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000
Temperature [°C]
Fig. 3. Typical scanning electron microscopy micrograph of the porous
(B) Heat-treatment Profile alumina ceramic produced using a polystyrene content of 30 vol%,
1600
showing the aligned pore channels in the radial direction with three dis-
Sintering (T = 1400°C, 5 h) tinctive zones (zones I–III) at low magnification.
1400

1200
Temperature [°C]

1000
800 Burn-out
(T = 600°C, 3 h)
600
400
1°C/min
200
5°C/min
0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Time [h]
Fig. 2. (A) TGA and DTA analyses of the green sample after the re-
moval of the camphene as a function of the temperature at a heating rate
of 51C/min in air, and (B) heat-treatment profile designed for burning
out organic phases and sintering the alumina walls.
phene were characterized using TGA and DTA analyses, as
shown in Fig. 2(A). It was observed that the organic phases were
completely degraded at a temperature of o6001C. A negligible
amount of organic phases remained after the heat treatment. In
addition, two exothermic reactions were observed at tempera-
tures between 2001 and 5501C, indicating that extensive deg-
radation of the organic phases occurred in this range of
temperature.
On the basis of these TGA and DTA analyses, we selected a
heating profile designed to burn out the organic phases and sin-
ter the alumina walls, as shown in Fig. 2(B). The samples were
heated from 2001 to 6001C at a slow heating rate of 11C/min and
maintained at this temperature for 3 h to remove the organic
phases completely without generating any defects in the alumina
walls. Thereafter, the samples were sintered at 14001C for 5 h,
followed by furnace cooling.
(3) Characterization of Porous Structures
Camphene is one of several well-known organic plastic crystals
that grow dendritically at an appropriate temperature gradi-
ent.24,25 In particular, when ceramic powders are dispersed in
molten camphene, they are expelled by the growing camphene
and become concentrated between the dendrite arms.17 This
unique freezing behavior results in a bicontinuous structure
consisting of a three-dimensionally interconnected camphene
dendrite network and ceramic powder network. This bicontin-
uous structure is of technical importance, as it is possible to
5°C/min
sinter highly concentrated ceramic powder walls, regardless of
the initial solid loading used, which allows ultra-high porosity
ceramics with completely interconnected pore channels to be
produced.20 All of the samples fabricated in this study retained
their shapes, without the collapse of the porous structure, after
Furnace Cooling sintering at 14001C for 5 h, even though the initial solid loading
was as low as 5 vol%.
When the warm ceramic/camphene slurry prepared at 601C
is cast into the chilled mold at 201C, it experiences a tempera-
ture gradient, which affects its solidification behavior. More
12 14 16 18 20 22 specifically, as illustrated in Fig. 1(B), heat is transferred
from the solid, while the solidification of the slurry takes place
starting at the mold wall and advancing toward the center of
the cast body. All of the samples fabricated herein showed
three distinctive zones (zones I–III), each having a different
pore structure. A typical SEM micrograph of the sample
produced using a PS content of 30 vol% is shown in Fig. 3.
These unique pore structures can be explained on the basis
of the well-known solidification theory of ingots in the metal
industry, in which the hot ingot that is poured into the
chilled mold solidifies due to the temperature gradient.26 How-
ever, the key difference in the present case is that the PS poly-
mer added to the slurry would be expected to experience a
TIPS during freezing, as did the PS-cyclohexane solution in a
previous study,27 which should influence the dendritic growth of
the camphene.
(4) Pore Structures in Zone I
All of the fabricated samples had outer shells (zone I) with dis-
tinctive pore structures that distinguished them from those
formed beneath this region (zone II), as shown in Figs. 4(A)–
(F). At higher magnifications, the morphologies of the pores in
the outer shells are more clearly visible (Figs. 4(B), (D), and (E)).
For the most part, elongated pores were formed parallel to the
direction of the heat conduction. However, the pore structure
and the degree of interconnection were strongly affected by the
initial PS content in the slurry. In other words, the sample pro-
duced with a PS content of 10 vol% showed well-interconnected
pore channels, while the sample produced with a PS content
of 30 vol% showed elongated pore channels with smaller-sized
interconnections.
Another interesting finding is that the thickness of the outer
shell decreased notably when the initial PS content was in-
creased. These observations indicate that the PS polymer inhib-
its the formation of the outer shell, by slowing the dissipation
rate of the heat. Practically speaking, other factors, including the
December 2006 Effect of Polystyrene Addition on Freeze Casting of Ceramic/Camphene Slurry 3649

cooling rate and initial solid loading, should also affect the pore channels did not change significantly, remaining approxi-
thickness of the outer shell. mately 30 mm.

(6) Pore Structures in Zone III

(5) Pore Structures in Zone II
Beneath the outer shells, the inner regions (zone II) were found
to have aligned pore channels, as shown in Fig. 5. In addition,
the degree of alignment of the pore channels was remarkably
improved as the PS content increased. In the case of the sample
produced using a PS content of 10 vol%, partially aligned pore
channels were observed, which were extensively elongated
with smaller-sized interconnections (top images). The align-
ment of the pore channels was more pronounced when the PS
content was increased to 20 vol% (middle images). With the
higher PS content of 30 vol%, most of the pore channels were
well aligned toward the center of the sample (bottom images).
Furthermore, the interconnections between the pore channels
became larger with increasing PS content, while the sizes of the
The morphologies of the pores formed in the central zones (zone
III) were distinctively different from those formed in zones I and
II, as shown in Fig. 6. This change in the pore structure became
more pronounced for the sample produced using the higher PS
content. In the case of the sample produced using a PS content
of 10 vol%, the interconnections between the pore channels
were notably enlarged compared with those formed in zone II,
while some partially aligned pore channels were still to be found
(Figs. 6(A) and (B)). Similar morphologies were observed for the
pores and interconnections in the sample produced using a PS
content of 20 vol% (Figs. 6(C) and (D)). On the other hand, the
sample produced using a PS content of 30 vol% showed dis-
tinctively different pore morphologies, i.e., equiaxed pore chan-
nels along with very thin alumina walls (Figs. 6(E) and (F)).

Fig. 4. Typical scanning electron microscopy micrographs of the porous alumina ceramics produced using polystyrene contents of 10 vol% (A, B),
20 vol% (C, D), and 30 vol% (E, F). The left and right panels show the formation of the outer shells (zone I) and the pore structures in zone I,
respectively.
3650 Journal of the American Ceramic Society—Koh et al.
(7) Porosity Measurement
To investigate the porosities and the degrees of interconnection
in the three distinctive zones, the samples were infiltrated with
an epoxy and then ground. The SEM images of the epoxy-filled
samples were digitally colored to facilitate their visualization.
The typical digitally colored SEM images of the sample pro-
duced using a PS content of 30 vol% are shown in Figs. 7(A)–
(C). The dark and bright contrasts represent the alumina and
epoxy phases, respectively. It is also apparent that the three
zones have unique pore structures (the outer shell with elongated
pores, the inner zone with long aligned pore channels, and the
center with equiaxed pores).
The porosities in the three distinctive zones of the samples
fabricated using the various PS contents (10, 20, and 30 vol%)
were calculated from the digitally colored SEM micrographs, as
summarized in Table II. All of the fabricated samples showed an
ultra-high porosity of 488%. The change in porosity developed
in three distinctive zones was negligible.
IV. Discussion
The observed results suggest that the ceramic–PS–camphene
slurry fundamentally solidifies like an ingot,26 as the solidifica-
tion of the warm slurry would be expected to take place on the
chilled mold wall and advance toward the center of the cast
body. However, it should be noted that the PS polymer added
to the slurry would be expected to experience TIPS during
Fig. 5. Typical scanning electron microscopy micrographs of the porous alumina ceramics produced using polystyrene (PS) contents of 10 vol% (10PS),
20 vol% (20PS), and 30 vol% (30PS), showing the pore structures that developed in zone II.
Vol. 89, No. 12
freezing, which accordingly should influence the dendritic
growth of the camphene. This TIPS behavior was examined
by observing the change in microstructure of the PS/camphene
solution during freezing using an optical microscope equipped
with a hot-stage optical microscope. It was observed that
camphene dendrites grew two-dimensionally toward the upper
right-hand corner, as shown in Fig. 8(A). The preferential den-
dritic growth of the camphene was more clearly observed by
SEM micrograph, as shown in Fig. 8(B), where the frozen cam-
phene was sublimed, accordingly resulting in pore channels.
Pore channels were aligned with well-defined pore sizes. Long
straight channels and short elongated pore channels were
observed parallel and normal to the direction of the cam-
phene growth, respectively. These results indicate that the PS
polymer added to the ceramic/camphene slurry can effectively
improve pore alignment and formation of side arms by guiding
the dendritic growth of the camphene during freeze casting.
However, it might be also possible that the PS polymer added to
the slurry simply changes the freezing factors, such as degree of
super cooling, growth rate, and temperature gradient, accord-
ingly promoting favorable formation of side arms of camphene
dendrites.
A schematic of the overall pore structures in the porous cer-
amic produced using the present method is shown in Fig. 9. It
should be noted that the pores should mimic the structure of the
frozen camphene. Immediately after casting the warm slurry
prepared at 601C into the chilled mold at 201C, the slurry, being
in contact with the chilled mold, is rapidly cooled below its
December 2006 Effect of Polystyrene Addition on Freeze Casting of Ceramic/Camphene Slurry 3651

Fig. 6. Typical scanning electron microscopy micrographs of the porous alumina ceramics produced using polystyrene contents of 10 vol% (A, B), 20
vol% (C, D), and 30 vol% (E, F), showing the pore structures that developed in zone III.

solidification temperature; thus, many nuclei of the camphene
then form on the mold wall and begin to grow into the warm
slurry. Under these conditions, most of the nuclei do not have a
preferential orientation that corresponds to the direction of the
heat conduction. Therefore, these camphene crystals cannot
overgrow dendritically, and this results in the formation of short
elongated pores (especially in the case of PS addition) in the
sintered body (zone I).
Beyond this region, the temperature gradient at the mold wall
decreases and the camphene crystals in the outer shell grow
dendritically in certain crystallographic directions, i.e., the
/001Sor c direction.24 Those crystals with a preferential orien-
tation close to the direction of heat flow, i.e., perpendicular to
the mold wall, grow faster and are able to outgrow their less
favorably oriented neighbors. This leads to the formation of
oriented columnar camphene dendrites, which accordingly re-
sults in the long aligned pore channels in the sintered body. The
PS polymer would obviously be expected to undergo phase sep-
aration from the molten camphene during the freezing process,
promoting the growth of the camphene dendrite in the prefer-
ential orientation.
In the center of the cast body, some of the dendrite side arms
might be melted off and then act as seeds for new dendrites,
resulting in the formation of equiaxed pore structures. This
unique pore structure in the center of the cast body might be
related to the breakaway of the side arms from the primary
dendrite of the camphene.
It should be noted that it was possible to produce ultra-high
porosity ceramics with well-aligned pore channels using the
camphene-based freeze-casting method, wherein the PS polymer
was used not only as an organic binder but also as a structuring
agent to promote pore alignment. In addition, no noticeable
defects, such as cracking or surface flaws, were observed on the
ceramic walls. These porous ceramics with unique pore struc-
3652 Journal of the American Ceramic Society—Koh et al. Vol. 89, No. 12

Fig. 7. Digitally colored scanning electron microscopy micrographs of the porous alumina ceramic produced using a polystyrene content of 30 vol%,
showing the pore structures that developed in (A) zone I, (B) zone II, and (C) zone III.

Table II. Porosities in the Three Distinctive Zones of the

Porous Alumina Ceramics Produced Using the Various PS
Contents (10, 20, and 30 vol%)
PS content (vol%) Zone I (%) Zone II (%) Zone III (%)

10 92 88 88
20 93 90 86
30 88 90 90
PS, polystyrene.

Center

Solidification

Chill
Mold

Elongated Long, Aligned Equiaxed

Fig. 8. (A) Optical photograph showing phase separation of the poly-
styrene (PS)/camphene system and (B) scanning electron microscopy
micrograph of the porous PS sample after removing the frozen cam-
phene. Arrow indicates the direction of the dendritic growth of the
camphene.
Pores Pore Channels Pores
Fig. 9. Schematic illustration of the overall pore structure produced by
freezing the ceramic–polystyrene–camphene slurry, three distinctive pore
structures (the outer shell with the elongated pores, the inner zone with
long and aligned pore channels, and the center with equiaxed pores).

V. Conclusions

tures and strong ceramic walls should find very useful applica- The effect of PS polymer addition on the solidification of a cer-
tions in diverse fields, for example, as bone scaffolds with faster amic/camphene slurry with an initial solid loading of 5 vol%
bone ingrowth.28 was investigated. To accomplish this, three kinds of slurry with
December 2006 Effect of Polystyrene Addition on Freeze Casting of Ceramic/Camphene Slurry
PS contents of 10, 20, and 30 vol% in relation to the alumina
powders were examined. The warm slurry prepared at 601C by
the ball-milling process was cast into the chilled mold at 201C,
followed by the removal of the frozen camphene, binder burn-
out, and sintering. All of the fabricated samples showed ultra-
high porosities of 488% with unique pore structures. Three
distinctive zones (the outer shell with elongated pore channels,
the inner zone with long aligned pore channels, and the center
with equiaxed pores) developed, as the solidification of the warm
slurry took place starting on the chilled mold wall and advanced
toward the center of the cast body. It was observed that the PS
polymer that was added notably affected the pore structure, as it
underwent phase separation from the molten camphene during
the freezing process. The degree of alignment of the pore chan-
nels was remarkably improved by increasing the PS content to
30 vol%. The porous ceramic with unique pore structures and
strong ceramic walls produced using the present method should
have a high surface area, high fluid permeability, and high
mechanical properties.
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