Plastic shaping of aqueous alumina suspensions with sucrose and maltodextrin additives

Traditional methods for the shape-forming of engineering ceramics entail plastic deformation of powder slurries containing hazardous organic liquids as suspending media. Replacing these organic with aqueous media requires the development of environmentally benign, water-soluble additives which serve as plasticizers and binders. Fundamental studies were performed with aqueous suspensions of colloidal-Al₂O₃ to evaluate the role of sucrose and maltodextrin on viscosity, sedimentation, and filtration characteristics, plastic flow behavior of filter cakes, and sinterability. Maltodextrin systems exhibited superior results, including filtration to high packing densities and clay-like plasticity with minimal cracking.Paper presented at the Bio/Environmentally Degradable Polymer Society—Third National Meeting, June 6–8, 1994, Boston, Massachusetts.Ames Laboratory is operated for the U.S. Department of Energy by Iowa State University under Contract W-7405-Eng-82.