Fabrication of textured alumina by magnetic alignment via gelcasting based on low-toxic system

The controlled development of texture in ceramics allows to improve some electrical, piezoelectric and mechanical properties of advanced ceramics materials by tailoring the microstructure. A highly textured microstructure of undoped dense alumina was attained by applying a novel combination of gelcasting techniques with magnetic alignment followed by sintering. A newly synthesized low-toxic acrylic monomer based on galactose was introduced to the gelcasting procedure. Thermal analysis of the gelcast has been performed to examine decomposition process of the new binder and match appropriate sintering rate. The effectiveness of the proposed procedure has been related to rheological properties of the suspension by clarifying the influence of the powder and the dispersant content. It has been also related to the idle time of polymerization by clarifying the influence of the initiator content. The new method is compared to slip casting in high magnetic field that has been used widely so far. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.