Reinforcement of a Reticulated Porous Ceramic by a Novel Infiltration Technique

The strength of a reticulated porous ZrO2 ceramic was improved significantly by applying a novel infiltration technique. In a conventional reticulated porous ZrO2 cellular ceramic, a polymer foam is coated with the ceramic. Heat treatment produces triangularly shaped pore channels within most of the ceramic struts of the reticulated body. These channels are detrimental to mechanical strength. In an infiltration process under vacuum, a ZrO2 slurry was filled partially into the triangular pore channels of the ZrO2 body. Accordingly, the tips of these triangular pore channels became rounded and previously cracked strut walls were mended. As a result, the compressive strength of the reticulated ZrO2 was more than doubled compared with that obtained from specimens not subjected to the infiltration process.