This study reports a novel way of increasing the pore size of highly aligned porous alumina ceramics by heat-treating an extruded alumina/camphene body at a temperature near its solidification point. The pore size obtained increased remarkably from 51 +/- 8 to 125 +/- 27 mu m with increasing heat-treatment time from 1 to 24 h, due to the continuative overgrowth of the camphene dendrites during heat-treatment, while a highly aligned porous structure was preserved. In addition, interestingly, this heat-treatment enabled alumina walls to be densified quite well, whereas porous walls were observed in the sample produced without heat-treatment, which led to a considerable increase in compressive strength. The sample produced with a heat-treatment time of 12 h showed a high compressive strength of 11.6 +/- 1.2 MPa at a porosity of approximately 84 vol%, which was much higher than that (0.28 +/- 0.1 MPa) of the sample produced without heat-treatment. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
