A novel technique for making open-cell Al_2O_3-ZrO_2 ceramic foam with plant seed template

The aim of the present research is to provide a technique for preparing open-cell Al2O3-ZrO2 ceramic foams with uniform cell size.This technique used plant seeds to array templates and centrifugal slip casting to obtain cell struts with high packing density.Aqueous Al2O3-ZrO2 slurries with up to 50 vol.% solid contents were prepared and the rheological characteristic of the slurries was investigated.Consolidation was performed at an acceleration of 2,860 g for 60 min.The effect of the characteristic of plant seeds on the drying behavior of Al2O3-ZrO2 green compact was analyzed.The effects of the solid contents of slurries on segregation phenomena of Al2O3 and ZrO2 particles and green compact uniformity were investigated.The compressive stress-strain curve and deformation behavior of Al2O3-ZrO2 ceramic foams prepared using plant seed template were analyzed.The results showed segregation phenomenon is negligible for highly stable slurry with 50 vol.% solid loading.The prepared cell struts of Al2O3-ZrO2 foams have high green density (61.9% TD), sintered density (99.1% TD) and homogeneous microstructure.When sintered at 1,550 ℃ for 2 h, the cell size of Al2O3-ZrO2 foam is approximately uniform and the diameter is about 1.1 mm.The porosity and compressive strength of sintered products is 66.2% and 5.86 MPa, respectively.

Boosting methylcyclohexane dehydrogenation over Pt-based structured catalysts by internal electric heating

Methylcyclohexane(MCH)serves as an ideal hydrogen carrier in hydrogen storage and transportation process.In the continuous production of hydrogen from MCH dehydrogenation,the rational design of energy-efficient catalytic way with good performance remains an enormous challenge.Herein,an internal electric heating(IEH)assisted mode was designed and proposed by the directly electrical-driven catalyst using the resistive heating effect.The Pt/Al2O_(3)on Fe foam(Pt/Al2O_(3)/FF)with unique threedimensional network structure was constructed.The catalysts were studied in a comprehensive way including X-ray diffraction(XRD),scanning electron microscopy(SEM)-mapping,in situ extended X-ray absorption fine structure(EXAFS),and in situ COFourier transform infrared(FTIR)measurements.It was found that the hydrogen evolution rate in IEH mode can reach up to above 2060 mmol·gPt^(−1)·min^(−1),which is 2–5 times higher than that of reported Pt based catalysts under similar reaction conditions in conventional heating(CH)mode.In combination with measurements from high-resolution infrared thermometer,the equations of heat transfer rate,and reaction heat analysis results,the Pt/Al2O_(3)/FF not only has high mass and heat transfer ability to promote catalytic performance,but also behaves as the heating component with a low thermal resistance and heat capacity offering a fast temperature response in IEH mode.In addition,the chemical adsorption and activation of MCH molecules can be efficiently facilitated by IEH mode,proved by the operando MCH-FTIR results.Therefore,the as-developed IEH mode can efficiently reduce the heat and mass transfer limitations and prominently boost the dehydrogenation performance,which has a broad application potential in hydrogen storage and other catalytic reaction processes.

Synthesis of a novel Al foam with a periodic architecture by introducing hollow Al tubes and Al/Mg powders

In this work,we synthesized a brand-new Al foam with a periodic structure via a simple powder metallurgical route.The periodic architecture consists of both hierarchical porous and bi-directional composition-graded structures.The results show that the hierarchical porous material includes large pores on millimeter scale inheriting from the hollow structure of the Al tubes,and small pores on mi-crometer scale produced by the sintering of Al/Mg powders.The bi-directional Mg concentration-graded structure is formed in the tube walls due to the condensation of Mg vapor in the inner tube wall.The addition of Mg powders achieves excellent metallurgical bonding between the Al powders and the hollow tubes at 550℃.The plateau stress and energy absorption capacity of the Al foam in y-axis compression are significantly higher than that in the x-axis due to their anisotropic structure.In general,the Al foam with Mg addition presents the most superior compression performance,and we believe that our find-ings could open up a unique strategy for developing high-performance metallic foams with the periodic architecture involving both hierarchical porous and bi-directional graded structure.

Fabrication of Open-cell Al Foam Core Sandwich by Vibration Aided Liquid Phase Bonding Method and Its Mechanical Properties

The open-cell Al foam core sandwiches（AFCSs） were successfully fabricated by using a specially designed Zn-Al-Cu based filler alloy via vibration aided liquid phase bonding method.The effects of the vibration on the bonding seam were investigated and the bonding strength between Al foam core and solid Al alloy face sheet was tested by shearing tests.The results show that vibration can significantly improve the quality of the bonding and the shearing strength of the bonding seam,which implies that this joining method has a good potential in practical applications.

Fabrication of AI foam without thickening process through melt-foaming method

By using calcium carbonate （CaCO3） powder as the blowing agent, Al foams with porosities of - 60 to 85% and pore size of - 1.5 mm were fabricated via melt-foaming method. Instead of adding a thickening agent to increase Al melt viscosity, a small amount of Mg ingot （5.0 wt%） was added first, and then A1 melt was foamed by adding calcium carbonate via the impellor stirring. The effect of Mg addition on the gas release behavior of calcium carbonate in the Al melt was investigated. The compression behavior of fabricated Al foams was examined. The results show that the blowing gas is possibly from the reaction between Mg and calcium carbonate, and this reaction can produce solid oxides with micrometer level size, which leads to increasing the Al melt viscosity and is beneficial for inhibiting pores coarsening. Besides, the micrometer level cracks in the cell walls make the strength of Al foam decrease.