Effect of Sintering Temperature on The Microstructure Behaviour of Gelcasted Porous Ceramics Using Cassava Starch as Pore Template Suriati Eka Putri (a*), Diana Eka Pratiwi (a), Rachmat Triandi Tjahjanto (b), Heryanto Heryanto (c), Abd Rahman (d)
(a) Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Universitas Negeri Makassar, Makassar, Jalan Daeng Tata Raya Makassar, 90244, Indonesia
*ekaputri_chem[at]unm.ac.id
(b) Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Brawijaya University, Jalan Veteran Malang, 65145, Indonesia
(c) Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Hasanuddin University, Jalan Perintis Kemerdekaan Km. 20, Makassar, 90245, Indonesia
(d) Inorganic Chemistry, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Academic Belt Road, Dhahran, 31261, Arab Saudi
Abstract
Porous ceramics were prepared by gelcasting method from natural clay of kaolinite with 20 wt% cassava starch as gelling agent and pore-template. Cassava starch is used as an environmentally friendly pore-template material. Dry mixture compacted pellets were calcined for 2 hours at three sintering temperatures: 900, 1000, and 1100 oC. Sintering temperature^s effect on ceramic properties, such as porosity, hardness, morphology, crystallinity, and lattice strain, were examined. The results showed that the higher sintering temperature the porosity of the ceramic decreased and the hardness of the ceramic increased, then the higher sintering temperature, the crystallinity of the ceramic decreased (78.24% to 62.29%) while the lattice strain increased (calculated from the Full Width at Half Maximum peak diffraction). The resulting pore size for all temperature treatments was microporous (0.16-6.52 um). To produce a porous ceramic (29.19 vol% porosity) with a good hardness (108 HB), the optimum sintering temperature was determined to be 1100 oC. The resulting pellet-shaped porous ceramic is expected to be used as a future catalyst support and wastewater filter.
Keywords: gel casting, porous ceramic, lattice strain
