A review on aqueous gelcasting: A versatile and low-toxic technique to shape ceramics

This review aims to provide a comprehensive survey of recent low-toxic approaches used in the gelcasting process. In recent years, several natural gelling agents have been developed as possible alternatives to acrylamide systems, which were previously used extensively but are now rarely employed owing to their neurotoxicity. This work collects some successful case studies on aqueous gelcasting based on low-toxic or non-toxic gel-formers that have been applied to produce both dense and porous ceramics. Major innovations in the development of nanocomposite materials, transparent ceramics and microstructurally graded materials are discussed as well.