Abstract

We used different SiC particle size as raw materials and via reaction bonding technique to prepare porous SiC membrane supports. The phase composition, microstructure, bending strength, open porosity, and pore size distribution were investigated as a function of SiC particle size and firing temperature. It is found that the reduction of SiC particle size not only dramatically enhances the bending strength of porous SiC membrane supports, but also slightly reduces the firing temperature duo to smaller SiC particle with higher specific surface area and higher reaction activity.

Besides, the open porosity and pore size distribution are dependent on the firing temperature, but insensitive to the SiC particle size due to the pore related characters mainly controlled by the binder. The bending strength increases with the increasing of the firing temperature and with the decreasing of SiC particle size. When the firing temperature was 1 500 °C and SiC average particle size was 447.75 µm, the optimal performance were achieved, the bending strength was 15.18 MPa, the open porosity was 36.02 %, the pore size distributed at 3.09–112.47 µm, and the mean pore size was 14.16 µm.