Materials Science and Technology-2011-568.pdfVIP

Preparation of mullite fibres by sol–gel processes using aluminium carboxylates and tetraethylorthosilicate H. B. Tan*1,2, Y. B. Zhang1, Y. P. Ding1 and J. F. Yang1 Mullite fibres were prepared using aluminium carboxylates (ACs) and tetraethylorthosilicate by sol–gel process. ACs were synthesised from dissolution aluminium in a mixture of formic acid and glacial acetic acid using aluminium chloride hexahydrate as catalyst. The optimum condition for obtaining ACs is as follows: the molar ratio of aluminium, formic acid and acetic acid was 1 : 3 : 2?26 and aluminium chloride hexahydrate was 10 wt-%. All the Al and Si components were mixed at the molecular level and linear molecules were formed in the precursor sol. The dried gel fibres completely transformed to mullite fibres at 1200uC and the calcinated fibres had a smooth surface and uniform diameter. Keywords: Mullite, Fibres, Preparation, Sol–gel processes, ACs, TEOS Introduction Mullite (3Al2O3.2SiO2) is only crystalline phase in the Al2O3–SiO2 system. 1 The mullite structure can be described as edges shared AlO6 octahedron chains parallel to c axis bounded by aluminium and/or silicon tetrahedron.2 Mullite has been recognised as an out- standing ceramic material, owing to its high temperature strength, creep resistance, thermal and chemical stability, low thermal expansion coefficient and good dielectric properties. An important potential application of mullite is as fibres reinforcement in metals, ceramics and resins. There are mainly two processes for the manufacturing of ceramic fibres.3 They are melt spinning processes and sol–gel spinning processes. Conventionally, melt spin- ning methods are adopted for the synthesis of low melting point ceramic fibres. However, it is difficult to prepare mullite fibres because of the higher melting points. In order to overcome the difficulties, the sol–gel technique is employed to synthesise mullite fibres.4–6 Many successful processes have been reported in the preparation