Abstract Owing to low density, hollow glass microspheres (HGMs) float on common media such as water, ethanol, and tertiary butanol. As a result, HGMs are not suitable to prepare slurries and ceramics by gel, slip, and freeze castings. In this paper, polyacrylamide (PAM) was used as dispersant and thickener agent to prepare homogeneous HGM aqueous slurries with controlled solid loadings and subsequent lightweight HGM porous ceramics were prepared by gel casting. Effects of PAM content on the stability of aqueous slurries as well as effects of solid (i.e., HGM) loading on density, porosity, pore size distribution, and compressive strength of porous ceramics were investigated. Increasing the viscosity of the slurry resulted in HGMs with significantly lower floating rates and more stable HGM aqueous slurries. HGM porous ceramics with densities and compressive strengths of 0.127–0.219 g/cm3 and 0.74–1.71 MPa, respectively, were prepared by gel casting.

中文翻译：

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凝胶浇注法制备轻质中空玻璃微球陶瓷

摘要 由于密度低，中空玻璃微球 (HGMs) 漂浮在水、乙醇和叔丁醇等常见介质上。因此，HGM 不适合通过凝胶、泥浆和冷冻铸件制备浆料和陶瓷。在本文中，聚丙烯酰胺（PAM）用作分散剂和增稠剂，制备具有受控固体负载的均匀 HGM 水性浆料，随后通过凝胶浇注制备了轻质 HGM 多孔陶瓷。研究了 PAM 含量对水性浆料稳定性的影响以及固体（即 HGM）负载对多孔陶瓷的密度、孔隙率、孔径分布和抗压强度的影响。增加浆料的粘度导致 HGM 具有显着较低的漂浮率和更稳定的 HGM 水性浆料。