Particle redistribution and structural defect development during ice templating

The freezing of colloidal suspensions is encountered in many natural and engineering processes. It can be harnessed, through a process known as ice templating, to produce porous materials and composites exhibiting unique functional properties. The phenomenon by itself appears simple: a solidificatio...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Acta materialia 2012-06, Vol.60 (11), p.4594-4603
Main Authors: Lasalle, Audrey, Guizard, Christian, Maire, Eric, Adrien, Jérôme, Deville, Sylvain
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Cellular solids
Ceramic material
Ceramics
Chemical Sciences
Crystal defects
Crystals
Defects
Exact sciences and technology
Flocculating
Freeze-casting
Material chemistry
Mechanical properties
Mechanical properties and methods of testing. Rheology. Fracture mechanics. Tribology
Metals. Metallurgy
Particulate composites
Porous materials
Scattering
Solidification
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The freezing of colloidal suspensions is encountered in many natural and engineering processes. It can be harnessed, through a process known as ice templating, to produce porous materials and composites exhibiting unique functional properties. The phenomenon by itself appears simple: a solidification interface propagates through a colloidal suspension. We are nevertheless still far from a complete understanding and control of the phenomenon. Such lack of control is reflected in the very large scattering of mechanical properties reported for ice-templated ceramics, largely due to the formation of structural defects. Through systematic in situ investigations, we demonstrate here the role of suspension composition and the role of particle–particle electrostatic interactions on defect formation during ice templating. Flocculation can occur in the intercrystal space, leading to a destabilization of the solid–liquid interface and triggering the growth of crystals perpendicular to the main ice growth direction. This mechanism contributes significantly to the formation of structural defects and largely explains the scattering of compressive strength values reported in the literature.
ISSN:1359-6454
1873-2453
DOI:10.1016/j.actamat.2012.02.023