Lightweight mullite ceramics with controlled porosity and enhanced properties prepared by SLS using mechanical mixed FAHSs/polyamide12 composites

It is difficult to fabricate lightweight ceramic parts with well pore control and high structural complexity. In this paper, lightweight mullite ceramics with controlled porosity and enhanced properties were prepared via selective laser sintering (SLS) using mechanical mixed FAHSs/PA12 (Fly ash hollow spheres/polyamide 12) composites. Crack-free ceramic green bodies were prepared through SLS using the optimized process parameters: 7.2 W in laser power, 1600 mm/s in scanning velocity and 0.11 mm in hatch spacing. The influence of PA12 content on porosity, size distribution of open pore, mechanical properties and thermal property were studied. The pores in ceramic foams consisted of the closed pores from sphere core-shell structures, the open pore channels in the middle of stacking spheres and the special gaps in the middle of spheres related to SLS. It was found that the total porosity of lightweight mullite ceramics increased slightly from 85.1 ± 0.3% to 85.2 ± 0.4% with PA12 content increasing from 10 to 15 wt%, and then increased obviously to 86.7 ± 0.5% with further increasing PA12 addition to 25 wt%. This porosity increase was mainly attributed to the open pores resulted from the PA12 addition. The PA12 were firstly filled into the interspaces between stacking spheres and when the stacking volume reached the maximum, the interspaces expanded to form the special gaps between spheres with further PA12 addition. Thus, the size distribution of open pore in lightweight FAHS ceramics increased from 31.5 to 34.5 μm gradually with PA12 content increasing from 10 to 25 wt%. Finally, low thermal conductivity of 0.06 W/(m·K) was obtained, which probably resulted from the high porosity and the special pore structures of the SLS-formed ceramic foams. The understanding of the unique pore structures and microstructures will help the pore control and strength improvement of SLS-formed ceramic foams using the ceramic hollow spheres.