Stability, microstructure and mechanical properties of (Al, Fe)2 TiO5 porous ceramic reinforced by in-situ mullite

Stabilized Al2TiO5-based porous ceramics reinforced by in-situ formed mullite whiskers were fabricated by reaction sintering method. The thermal stability, microstructure, mechanical properties and pore size distribution of these porous ceramics were examined. Results show that with the substitution of Al2O3 by Fe2O3, the thermal decomposition of Al2TiO5 is well suppressed, and with the increasing amount of in-situ formed mullite, the mechanical properties are improved obviously under the similar apparent porosity. Finally, a stabilized Al2TiO5-mullite porous ceramic with compressive strength of 51.8 MPa, flexural strength of 14.6 MPa and apparent porosity of about 42% was obtained. It had a bimodal pore size distribution and the pore diameter was in the range of 0.1 to 20 mu m. (C) 2015 The Ceramic Society of Japan. All rights reserved.