High-strength, multifunctional and 3D printable mullite-based porous ceramics with a controllable shell-pore structure

• DOI: 10.1016/j.apmate.2023.100153
• Publication Date: 2023-07-29T06:30:38Z
• Authors: Feiyue Yang; Shuang Zhao; Guobing Chen; Kunfeng Li; Zhifang Fei; Paul Mummery; Zichun Yang
• Keywords: Mullite

The quest for lightweight and functional materials poses stringent requirements on mechanical performance of porous materials. However, the contradiction between high strength elevated porosity severely limits their application scenarios in emerging fields. Herein, high-strength multifunctional mullite-based ceramic monoliths were fabricated utilizing waste fly ash hollow microspheres (FAHMs) by protein gelling technique. Owing to unique shell-pore structure inspired shell-protected biomaterials, with 54.69%–70.02% exhibited a compressive (32.3–42.9 MPa) which was 2–5 times that ceramics similar density reported elsewhere. Moreover, pore properties could be tuned regulation particle size content FAHMs, resultant demonstrated superior integrated performances applications, such as broadband sound insulation, efficient thermal high-temperature fire resistance (>1300 °C). On this basis, lattices (porosity 68.28%–84.79%) hierarchical successfully assembled direct ink writing (DIW), significantly higher (3.02–10.77 than most other comparable densities. This can extended materials, our strategy paves new way cost-effective, scalable green production well-defined microstructure.