LIU Yongyang, ZHANG Cuiping, HUANG Nan, HAN Lingfeng, ZHAO Yiliang, ZHANG Jin, HUANG Yuntao, RU Hongqiang, YUE Xinyan, WANG Wei
(Key Laboratory for Anisotropy and Texture of Materials (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, Liaoning, China)

Abstract: Porous TiB₂-C green bodies for reaction-bonded titanium diboride composites with controllable porosity were prepared by using gel-casting technique with phenolic resin-ethylene glycol gel systems. The effect of the composition of the ceramic slurry on pore structure and volume shrinkage of the porous TiB₂-C green bodies was studied. The ceramic slurry had a viscosity of 363 mPa•s, as 1.5 wt.% PEG 400 dispersing agent was used. TiB₂-C green bodies with evenly distributed three-dimensional interworking pores could be readily obtained by controlling the composition of the ceramic slurries. The porous TiB₂-C green body exhibited a volume density of 2.43 g/cm³, an open porosity of 32.7%, a relative density of 61.1% and a volume shrinkage of 20.6%, when the ceramic slurry was prepared with ethylene glycol:mixed resin=1:1, furfuryl alcohol:phenolic resin=2:8, curing catalyst content of 6 wt.% and the solid loading of 70 wt.%.

Key words: gel-casting; porous TiB₂-C green body; viscosity; pore structure; shrinkage of green body