2025-01-312025-01-312024Madrigal, J.R., García-Galán, M.A., Guiberteau, F., Candelario, V.M. y Ortiz, Á.L. (2024). Novel B4C supports for ceramic membrane filtration. Ceramics International, 50, 50436-50443. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2024.09.389.0272-88421873-3956https://hdl.handle.net/11441/168044© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-nd/4.0/).Novel complex-shaped porous B4C supports were fabricated for use in ceramic membrane filtration applications, the processing of which is described in detail. Firstly, an extrudable ceramic paste was formulated and homogenised, containing a high content of B4C of super-coarse and ultrafine grades, plus water as liquid medium and various organic additives as thickener, binder, plasticiser, and lubricant. Secondly, tubular honeycomb parts (i.e., cylinders of ∼26 mm outer diameter with 30 inner channels of 3 mm diameter each) were extruded at ∼25 bar and dried in air at 120 °C for 24 h, resulting in robust green B4C membrane supports without macro- or micro-defects. Thirdly, suitable debinding conditions were identified by thermogravimetry of the paste and its components, and the dry membrane supports were debinded at 700 °C for 1.5 h in high vacuum (<0.1 Pa) confirming that they retain their shape with minimal isotropic shrinkage (∼0.13–0.15 %). And fourthly, the debinded membrane supports were pressureless sintered at 2000 °C for 3 h in inert atmosphere undergoing only an additional 1 % isotropic shrinkage, resulting in B4C membrane supports with low apparent density (∼0.89(1) g/cm3), high porosity (∼38–39 %), open interconnected micrometre pores (in the range ∼0.5–16 μm, and d50∼1.5 μm), and low skeletal density (∼2.455(1) g/cm3). Importantly, their only partial densification makes them both sufficiently strong mechanically (∼68(2) MPa compressive strength) and highly permeable to water (∼13131(418) l/(m2·h·bar) permeability at ∼1.3 bar). These attributes, together with the intrinsic lightness and durability of B4C ceramics, make these novel supports in principle very appealing for ceramic membrane filtration and other applications.application/pdf8 p.engAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Porous ceramicsB4CCeramic membrane supportsCeramic processingFiltration applicationsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2024.09.389