Fabrication and characterization of micro-porous ceramic membrane based on kaolin and alumina

Kaolin and α-alumina powders are used to synthesise microporous ceramics using starch as an organic pore-former, and phosphoric acid as an inorganic binder. This work has been carried out to further develop microporous ceramic materials based on alumina-kaolin for filtration purposes. The membranes are characterized using SEM, XRD, permeability, porosity, density, average pore size, chemical stability, shrinkage, and solvent permeation. The ceramics sintered at 1200°C, after being compacted at 14.7 MPa, exhibit porosity of about 32.2±3%. These ceramics show reasonably good permeability as well as mechanical strength. The average pore sizes of these supports found to be approximately between 0.5–1.5 µm and are hydrophilic in nature.