Thanakorn Wasanapiarnpong

Fabrication of Silicon Nitride Dental Core Ceramics with Borosilicate Veneering material

Silicon nitride (Si3N4) ceramic is a great candidate for clinical applications due to its high fracture toughness, strength, hardness and bio-inertness. This study has focused on the Si3N4 ceramic as a dental core material. The white Si3N4 was prepared by pressureless sintering at relative low sintering temperature of 1650 °C in nitrogen atmosphere. The coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of Si3N4 ceramic is lower than that of Zirconia and Alumina ceramic which are popular in this field. The borosilicate glass veneering was employed due to its compatibility in thermal expansion. The sintered Si3N4 specimens represented the synthetic dental core were paintbrush coated by a veneer paste composed of borosilicate glass powder (<150 micrometer, Pyrex) with 5 wt% of zirconia powder (3 wt% Y2O3 – partial stabilized zirconia) and 30 wt% of polyvinyl alcohol (5 wt% solution). After coating the veneer on the Si3N4 specimens, the firing was performed in electric tube furnace between 1000-1200°C. The veneered specimens fired at 1100°C for 15 mins show good bonding, smooth and glossy without defect and crazing. The veneer has thermal expansion coefficient as 3.98×10−6 °C−1, rather white and semi opaque, due to zirconia addition, the Vickers hardness as 4.0 GPa which is closely to the human teeth.

Hydrothermal Synthesis of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticle from Zinc-Dust Waste for Photocatalytic and Antibacterial Applications

ZnO nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by using zinc dust waste derived from hot-dip galvanizing process as a starting materials via simple hydrothermal method. The zinc dust powder was dissolved in nitric acid, adjusted pH with NaOH and hydrothermally treated at 120-170°C in an oven. The resultant products were characterized for phase, surface area and morphology by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer-Emmet-Taller (BET) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. Moreover, the photocatalytic activity was investigated by a photodegradation of methylene blue solution under black light irradiation. It was shown that crystallinity of pure ZnO phase, was influenced by solution and hydrothermal treatment temperature. The experimental results exhibited that the crystallinity of ZnO significantly affected its photocatalytic activity. The highest photocatlytic activity was obtained from powders with average crystallite size of 51 nm and surface area of 13.4 m2/g prepared under pH12 and hydrothermally treated at 170°C for 6 h. Moreover, the synthesized ZnO powders performed a good antibacterial activity evaluated using a colony count method with Escherichia coli under the dark condition.

Thermal Conductivity Improvement by Heat-Treatment in Si3N4 Ceramics Using SiO2-MgO-Y2O3 Additive System

Silicon nitride (Si3N4) ceramics have been interested for electrical substrate applications, because the ceramics can be made highly mechanical strength, fracture toughness, electrical resistivity and high thermal conductivity. Generally, relatively large amount of additives are required to obtain dense Si3N4 ceramics. During sintering, additives react with SiO2 including surface oxide of Si3N4 raw powder to form a liquid phase. Most of liquid phase changed into glassy phase during cooling down. In this study, Si3N4 ceramics were fabricated by gas pressure sintering. Yttrium oxide (Y2O3), silica (SiO2), and magnesia (MgO) were used for liquid-phase-enhanced sintering process. Dense materials were sintered by this process, but their thermal conductivities were not so high (30-40 W/m·K). Therefore, post-sintering heat-treatment process was performed to reduce the excess amount of glassy phase. An additive system (3 mass% SiO2 with 3 mass% MgO and 1-5 mass% Y2O3) was selected as the sintering aid. These ceramics could be sintered to almost full density at relatively low temperature as 1650oC for 2 h under 0.1 MPa-N2 without packing powder. The resulting materials have high bending strength, about 1 GPa, when 5mass% of Y2O3 was added. Based on the creation of low temperature pressureless sintering without packing powder, a novel two-step sintering (once firing) was proposed. The two-step sintering conducted by sintered at 1650oC under 0.1 MPa-N2 for 2 h for densification in the first step. Followed by heated up to and kept at 1950oC for 8 h under 1.0 MPa-N2 in the second step. The Si3N4 ceramics could be fabricated with relatively high thermal conductivity of 90 W/m·K. Mass loss, microstructure, mechanical properties, oxygen content and chemical composition were discussed.

Effect of Rice Husk and Rice Husk Ash on Properties of Lightweight Clay Bricks

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of rice husk and rice husk ash which have the difference chemical composition and organic matter on porosity and properties of lightweight clay brick . Comparative adding between rice husk and rice husk ash were varied by 10, 20, 30, 40 % by weight. The results showed that more adding of rice husk and rice husk ash increase pore in microstructure and water absorption, while decrease bulk density. Porosity and water absorption are maximized when the rice husk are added at 40 %. The clay brick with 10, 20 and 30 % of rice husk or rice husk ash addition showed the required density and compressive strength followed the industrial standard of lightweight brick. The addition with 10 % of rice husk showed the best properties as 1.20 g/cm3 of bulk density and 4.6 MPa of compressive strength with 36.57 % of porosity. Whereas, the 10 % addition of rice husk ash showed 1.18 g/cm3 of bulk density and 5.97 MPa with 37.27 % of porosity.

Fabrication and Photocatalytic Degradation of TiO2/Porous Activated Carbon-Zeolite Composite Cylinder

Activated carbon, zeolite and titanium dioxide are wildly used for removing the organic compounds in waste water. Although, these materials exhibit high performance (in powder form), reclaiming of these materials from the waste water treatment system is still hard. The objective of this study is to fabricate hollow cylinder activated carbon-zeolite samples which were used as a porous substrate. Various ratios of activated carbon, zeolite NaA and clay were mixed with special binder to form dough before extruded to be hollow cylinder shape. The hollow cylinder samples were cut into 2.5 cm long and then were fired at 600 °C for 2 hours under 5%CO2+N2 atmosphere. The fired samples were dip-coated with TiO2-P25 and fired at 600 °C for 1 hour under 5%CO2+N2 atmosphere for testing the photocatalytic degradation of lignin solutions under UV light. The results showed that the strength of fired samples increasing with the ratio of clay increased. The XRD patterns of samples having clay addition showed peaks of zeolite and quartz. The physical properties, microstructure and photodegradation will be discussed.

Fabrication of Activated Rice Husk Charcoal by Slip Casting as a Hybrid Material for Water Filter Aid

Activated charcoal has been widely used as an odor absorbent in household and water purification industry. Filtration equipment for drinking water generally consists of four parts, which are microporous membrane (porous alumina ceramic or diatomite, or porous polymer), odor absorbent (activated carbon), hard water treatment (ion exchange resin), and UV irradiation. Ceramic filter aid is usually prepared by slip casting of alumina or diatomite. The membrane offers high flux, high porosity and maximum pore size does not exceed 0.3 μm. This study investigated the fabrication of hybrid activated charcoal tube for water filtration and odor absorption by slip casting. The suitable rice husk charcoal and water ratio was 48 to 52 wt% by weight with 1.5wt% (by dry basis) of CMC binder. The green rice husk charcoal bodies were dried and fired between 700–900 °C in reduction atmosphere. The resulting prepared slip in high speed porcelain pot for 60 min and sintered at 700 °C for 1 h showed the highest specific surface area as 174.95 m2/g. The characterizations of microstructure and pore size distribution as a function of particle size were investigated.

Preparation of Porous Cylindrical Tubes Substrates from Zeolite and Clay for TiO2 Photocatalyst Coating

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is the one of photocatalyst materials that widely used for decolorization of organic compounds in wastewater by photocatalytic mechanism which can be activated by UV light. Unfortunately, in the case of fine TiO2 power, filtration of the powder after water treatment process is difficult. In this research, coating or immobilizing the TiO2 powder on substrates using for removing the color of lignin concentration is interesting. The objectives of this research are to prepare the floating porous cylindrical tube substrates composed of zeolite NaA and ball clay, and then to determine the efficiency of lignin degradation. Zeolite NaA powder, Suratthani ball clay and organic binder solution were mixed before extruding and cutting to be 1.5 cm diameter cylindrical tube with 2.5 cm in length and 0.3 cm in thickness. After that, the dried tubes were fired at 650 - 800 °C for 2 hours and were then coated with TiO2-P25 suspension before re-firing at 600 °C for 1 hour in an electrical furnace. The fired uncoated tubes were characterized in terms of phase composition, porosity and radial crush strength. From the XRD pattern of the tubes fired at 800 °C showed that the zeolite NaA phase was disappeared. On the other hand, the zeolite NaA phase was found in the samples fired at another lower temperature. For the coated tubes, polyurethane foam was filled into the hole to make the tubes can be floated on the water surface. After that, the photocatalyst degradation property by determining the decreasing of concentration of lignin solution under tungsten lamp irradiation of the floated tubes were tested.

Effect of Aluminum Hydroxide Addition on Properties of Fired Refractory Clay Brick

The pottery of Ratchaburi is very famous especially dragon jar which was fired by using dragon kiln. The kiln was made of unfired clay bricks, which its properties including high refractoriness, low thermal shrinkage and durable are desired. Aluminum hydroxide is an interesting material for improving brick’s properties, providing high active alumina (gamma-alumina) content after decomposition, high melting point and also reasonable cost. The study evaluated the effect of an additive, Al (OH)3, on the fried properties of refractory clay brick. In this study, four difference proportions of Al (OH)3 to clay , including 0:100, 25:75, 49:51 and 76:24 were studied. The specimens of 5x5x5 cm3 were formed by hand molding, then were fired at 1200, 1300 and 1400°C. The properties including refractoriness, volume shrinkage, strength, bulk density, water absorption, and slaking time were investigated. The samples of 25:75 ratio of Al (OH)3 to clay, which was fired at 1300°C exhibited high in refractoriness, low volume shrinkage of 5% and relatively low density of 1.69 g/cm3 as compared to those of 1400°C fired. Moreover, the moderate water adsorption of 15 % and useable compressive strength of 12.4 MPa was also observed. As a result, these properties suitable for using in firebox of dragon kiln of Ratchaburi province.

Influence of Lignite Bottom Ash on Pyroplastic Deformation of Stoneware Ceramic Tiles

Electricity generation at Mae Moh Power Plant in Lampang, Thailand, uses lignite as fuel. The output is 3.0 to 3.5 million tons of fly ash per year and 1.5 to 2.0 million tons of bottom ash per year. Fly ash is widely used in concrete application but for bottom ash, it is not very useful. When considering the phase of bottom ash containing quartz, anorthite and hematite, it was found that there are suitable chemical compositions for replacement of raw materials in ceramic tile. Generally, the stoneware tiles are composed of quartz, mullite, feldspar, and glass phase. Water absorption of stoneware ceramic tiles is below 5%, high strength, fire resistance, and low warpage. Firing or sintering at rather high temperature as 1000-1250 °C is the manufacturing process for this type of tile. The changes in crystal structure and glassy phase formation in tile texture during sintering will be often result the tile to warpage or bent. The more or less lean depends on the viscosity of the glassy phase that occurs at high temperatures in the tile if less viscosity will cause higher warping rate that effect on the shape, and quality of the workpiece. The research has reported that anorthite phase improves the viscosity of a liquid phase or glassy phase when the tile is sintering at high temperatures and lead to high density and low water absorption. This research is interested in studying the effect of using lignite bottom ash as an ingredient in ceramic tile texture to produce low water absorption type by analyzing the effect of percentage of lignite bottom ash to warpage and important properties of ceramic tiles.

Fabrication and Characterization of Low Thermal Expansion Cordierite/Spodumene/Mullite Composite Ceramic for Cookware

Ceramic cookware can be taken a direct flame or stove top for the duration without damage. The selected materials must have low thermal expansion coefficient, high strength, low water absorption and high thermal shock resistance, reasonable in cost and easy to be produced. Cordierite and spodumene composite has been interested for ceramic cookware due to their fitted properties. In previous work, study in the cordierite-spodumene composite with low thermal expansion coefficient of 2.60 x 10-6 /°C when sintered at 1250 oC with a ratio of spodumene 60 wt% and cordierite 40 wt% can withstand the pot shape samples. However, the sample showed relatively high water absorption and low strength which was not appropriate for using in this application. In this research, mullite is added in the formula to improve strength and densification of ceramic composites. Spodumene, ball clay, calcined talc and calcined alumina are used as starting raw materials and formed by slip casting. All samples are sintered in a temperature range from 1250-1275 °C in an electric furnace. Water absorption and bulk density were tested by Archimedes method, modulus of rupture was tested by the three-point bending method, microstructure were investigated by SEM and the coefficient of thermal expansion was measured by dilatometer. It was found that the mullite phase was investigated when adding mullite more than 30 wt% in cordierite-spodumene composite.