Processing of highly-porous cellular iron oxide-based ceramics by emulsification of ceramic suspensions

Iron oxides are attractive for a variety of applications, since they offer unique physical and chemical properties, while being abundant and environmentally friendly. Some of those potential applications, including electrochemical and catalytic systems, require ceramics with designed porosity and well-developed percolation networks. In the present work, representative Al- and Mg-substituted hematite and magnetite- based cellular ceramics were processed by emulsification of mixed oxide suspensions. Reactive firing conditions were adjusted to attain a reasonable compromise between designed porosity, percolation and phase composition. The impact of firing conditions on the cellular ceramics microstructure, porosity, phase content and interconnectivity of the cells was studied and discussed. Thus, the applicability of the proposed emulsification of ceramic suspensions method was demonstrated for iron oxide-based ceramics.