Nader Hedayat

Using Flixweed Seed as a Pore-former to Prepare Porous Ceramics

Flixweed (Descurainia Sophia L.) seeds, known as an herbal medicine, for the first time are used as a promising pore-forming agent (pore-former) in ceramic technology. Flixweed seeds were selected because of their unique constant shape (oblong, 1.2 mm long with the aspect ratio of about 2) and narrow size distribution as well as their low-cost. Porous zirconia ceramics have been fabricated using flixweed seeds by tape casting technique. The dried tape-cast cut into disk-shaped pieces and were fired at 1400°C for 2h, resulting in porous zirconia disks with a bulk density of 3.96 g/cm3, total porosity of 34.6 ± 0.9% (open porosity 25.5 ± 0.7%, closed porosity 9.1 ± 0.3%) and a linear shrinkage of 21.5 ± 0.3%. The pore shape and size were similar in shape and size to the original pore-former.