J Porous Mater (2011) 18:195–203
DOI 10.1007/s10934-010-9370-8
Porous ceramics with controllable properties prepared by protein
foaming-consolidation method
Ahmad Fadli • Iis Sopyan
Published online: 11 March 2010
Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010
Abstract A new protein foaming-consolidation method
for preparing porous alumina was developed using egg
yolk both as consolidating and foaming agent. This method
allows the control of properties of porous alumina not only
by varying alumina-to-yolk ratio but also by managing the
foaming process. After drying, the green bodies were
burned at 600 °C for 1 h to remove the pore creating agent,
followed by sintering at 1,550 °C for 2 h. The porous
alumina ceramics with pore sizes of 25–1,000 lm and
relative density of 29–50% were obtained. The compres-
sive strength of the sintered samples varied within the
range of 1.1–5.7 MPa, corresponding to porosity of 40–
71%. The addition of dispersant with different concentra-
tion into alumina slurries shifted the rheological properties
from shear thinning behavior to a Newtonian fluid, which
resulted in changes in the pore sizes of the resulting
ceramics. The main advantages of the process are the
simplicity of the process and the low-cost processing
equipment/materials needed. These results have opened a
novel preparative way for porous ceramics especially alu-
mina-based porous materials designed for biomedical
applications.
Keywords Protein foaming-consolidation  Egg yolk 
Alumina  Porous ceramics  Compressive strength 
Porosity
A. Fadli  I. Sopyan (&)
Department of Manufacturing and Materials Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering, International Islamic University
Malaysia, 50728 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
e-mail: sopyan@iiu.edu.my
A. Fadli
Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,
Riau University, Pekanbaru 28293, Indonesia
1 Introduction
Porous ceramics have become important materials for
various applications such as catalyst, porous burners,
membrane, kiln furniture, and bioceramics [1–5]. Each
application needs specific features and properties of porous
ceramics; they may differ in terms of porosity, strength,
pore size distribution, pore morphology and pore connec-
tivity. For effective thermal insulation, for example, it is
favorable to have closed porosity whereas for filters and
membranes open porosity is a must. In the bioceramics
field it is desirable to use porous ceramic implants with
certain porosity to promote integration with biological
tissues [6].
Processes like replication method and the foaming
method have been used for preparation of porous ceramics.
Schwartzwalder and Somers [7] reported the replication of
polymer foams, as one of the first manufacturing tech-
niques developed for producing ceramics with controlled
macroporosity. They started using polymeric sponges as
templates to prepare ceramic cellular structures of various
pore sizes, porosities, and chemical compositions. In the
polymeric replica approach, a highly porous polymeric
sponge (typically polyurethane) is initially soaked into a
ceramic suspension until the internal pore cavities are filled
with suspension. The polymeric sponge is then removed
from the suspension and the excess slurry squeezed out.
This is followed by firing to completely vaporize and burn
out the organic material as well as to vitrify the ceramics.
In the foaming method, porous ceramics are prepared by
mixing ceramic powder with organic materials as a pore-
forming agent, which are followed by combustion of the
mixture, leaving pores within the ceramic body. This
technique allows easy and fast production of highly porous
ceramics materials with generally less open and dense
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struts which results in lower permeability but higher
strength [8].
Lyckfeldt et al. reported a starch consolidation method for
preparation of porous ceramics. In this process, native and
chemically modified potato starch granules were incorpo-
rated into aqueous ceramic powder suspensions and the
slurry was further consolidated into near-net-shape bodies by
heating in the temperature range of 60–80 °C. The process
produces porous ceramics with 30–70% porosities and pore
size depends on the size of starch granules which is nearly
50 lm [9]. Preparation of porous ceramics with hierarchical
structure has also been reported using foaming and consol-
idation method. In this case, a ceramic powder suspension
containing cassava starch is foamed by using a liquid
detergent followed by consolidated in a microwave at 400 W
[10]. The usages of ovalbumine as foaming agent have been
tried by some researcher groups [11]. However, due to its
high foaming capacity, it was hardly to be suitable to make
porous ceramics with controlled porosity.
Recently, there is an increasing attention in using pro-
teins as additives to make porous materials. Proteins are
high molecular compounds, which are formally understood
as products of amino acids condensation. The main chain
of protein molecule is characterized by covalent peptide
bonds, while their (conformation) is stabilized by weak,
mostly non-covalent bonds. A change in the situation of
these bonds leads to a change in physical and chemical
properties of the molecule. The thermal activated loss of
this structure is called denaturation. Proteins are prone to
foaming because of their amphilic character [12]. When
adding a protein to a ceramic slip through a mixing oper-
ation, air bubbles are introduced, and the protein molecules
are adsorbed at the interface between air and water via
hydrophobic areas, and a partial unfolding (surface dena-
turation) occurs. The increase in the surface tension caused
by protein adsorption facilitates the formation of the new
interfaces and more bubbles are created. The ability of
protein molecules to form and stabilize foam depends on
the diffusion rate and denaturation ability [12].
Garrn et al. [13] reported the usage of protein (Bovine
Serum Albumine, BSA) as binders for producing alumina
foams. The combination of foaming and increased stiffness
gave a stable protein-ceramic foam structure. A fine cel-
lular foam structure of approximately 50–300 lm cell
diameters and 8–20% relative densities was obtained [13].
We have succeeded in developing a novel method for
preparation of porous alumina using egg yolk as both
consolidating and foaming agent [14]. Egg yolk is a
complex association of water (50%), lipids (33%) and
proteins (17%) [15]. It has been well known that the lipids
phase in egg yolk would reduce the foaming capacity of
protein in making pores. Previously, we have reported that
the porosities and compressive strengths of the porous
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J Porous Mater (2011) 18:195–203
alumina were controlled by adjusting the drying tempera-
ture of slurry [16]. In this report we wish to present the
effect of foaming process condition and composition
between yolk and alumina powder on physical properties
of the obtained porous alumina.
2 Experimental
2.1 Materials
The starting materials used to prepare the porous ceramics
were a commercial alumina powder (Sigma–Aldrich, Inc.
USA), with an average particle size of 0.25 lm (measured
using a Malvern Instruments nanosizer, NanoS model) and
a specific surface area of 0.39 m2/g (measured by N2
adsorption method on a Quantachrome surface area ana-
lyzer, Autosorb-1 model). Scanning electron microscope
(SEM) measurements showed that most of the particles
have irregular size and shape. Protein used was yolk that
freshly isolated from chicken egg. Darvan 821 A (R. T.
Vanderbilt, Norwalk, CT) was selected as the dispersant
because of its ability in stabilizing dispersion of alumina in
protein -water suspension [11].
2.2 Preparation of porous ceramics
The flow chart in Fig. 1 describes an overview of the
process. Slurries were prepared by dispersing the alumina
powder and yolk with an alumina-to- yolk ratios of 1.00,
0.83, 0.75, and 0.65 in weight. The slurries were magnet-
ically stirred in a beaker glass for 3 h with a rate of
150 rpm. Into the slurry, the dispersant of 0.01–0.05 wt%
concentrations was added. The slurries were cast in
cylindrical open stainless steel mold (ø & 1.3 mm,
h & 1.4 mm). Covering the molds with castor oil made
demolding easier. Thermal foaming-consolidating was
done in an air oven (Memmert, 100-800 model) at range
temperatures of 110–180 °C for 1 h. The yolks were
removed by burn-out in a SiC furnace (Protherm, PLF 160/
5 model) at 600° for a period of 1 h at 10 °C/min rate.
Then heating was continued at a rate of 2 °C/min up to
1,550 °C ended by 2 h dwell time at the temperature.
2.3 Determination of foaming capacity
The foaming capacity of slurries was evaluated by mea-
suring the change in volume of slurry as a function of
drying time. 10 mL slurries contained in a 100 mL glass
measuring cylinder was placed in a temperature-controller
air oven for 60 min. The temperature was varied between
100 and 180 °C. The change in slurries volume was
monitored for every specified time intervals. The foaming
J Porous Mater (2011) 18:195–203
Fig. 1 Preparation process of porous alumina ceramics by protein
foaming-consolidation method
capacity is evaluated in terms of the volume ratio of
foamed slurry to the original one [17].
2.4 Characterization
The rheological property of the slurries was measured in a
ThermoHaake VT 550 viscotester with a measuring system
of concentric cylinders using sensor cone type of SV-DIN.
Thermogravimetry analysis was carried out in a Perkin
Elmer TG/DTA (Pyris Diamond model) to understand the
details of the yolk burn-out in ambient air at a heating rate
of 10 °C/min. The apparent density of sintered samples
obtained was measured in Electronic densimeter (Alfa
Mirage, MD300S model). The theoretical density of fully
densified alumina (3.98 g/cm3) was used as the reference to
calculate the total volume fraction of porosity. The pore
size, interconnection among pore and also the grain
structure were examined using scanning electron micros-
copy (JEOL, 5600 model) and field emission scanning
electron microscopy (JEOL, JSM 6700 F model). The
mechanical strength of the porous bodies was measured
using a universal testing machine (Lloyd, LR10 K plus
model) through diametrical compression on samples of 3/2
height-to-width ratio. Five scaffold specimens were used to
determine the average maximum compressive strength.
3 Results and discussion
3.1 Rheological behavior
The viscosity of the slurries were measured at various shear
rates after 150 rpm for 3 h. Figure 2 shows the influence of
197
alumina-to-yolk ratio on the viscosity alumina slurries. For
comparison purpose, the viscosity of alumina suspension
with dispersant addition is also plotted in Fig. 2. It can be
seen clearly that the slurries without dispersant addition
showed pseudoplastic flow behavior. Though the slurries
showed small difference in viscosity (9.3–12.4 Pa s) at low
shear rate (10 s-1), the viscosity values of the slurries are
close at high shear rate. Pseudoplasticity in ceramics
slurries usually arises because of the existence of an
interparticle network, which undergoes a gradual break-
down with increasing shear rate, causing the typically
observed decrease in viscosity of slurries. It can be also
seen from Fig. 2 that addition of dispersant into slurries
with 1.00 alumina-to-yolk ratio altered flow behavior from
shear thinning to a Newtonian fluid. A viscosity of as high
as 12.4 Pa s was observed for the slurry without dispersant
content at low shear rate (10 s-1) but it decreased signifi-
cantly to 2.0 Pa s when 0.05 wt% dispersant was added.
The viscosity value of the all slurries at high shear rate
(700 s-1) was in the range 0.9–1.9 Pa s and it was still
suitable for casting.
The pseudoplasticity in ceramic can be characterized by
non-Newtonian index n calculated according to the power
law model as per the following equation [18]:
g ¼ kcn1 ð1Þ
where g is the viscosity of the slurry, c the applied shear
rate, k and n are the consistency factor and non-Newtonian
index, respectively. Highly shear thinning slurries, with a
strong inter-particle network, show a rapid decrease in
viscosity with an increase in shear rate, corresponding to a
lower value on the non-Newtonian index, n, and slurries
with weak or no inter-particle network become closer
to the Newtonian behaviour with n values approaching
1.0 [18]. However, in suspensions containing yolk the
Fig. 2 Plots showing the change in viscosity of alumina slurries as a
function of shear rate at various mixing conditions of alumina and
yolk
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Table 1 The parameters n and k as a function of yolk and dispersant
contents in alumina suspensions
Alumina-to-yolk mass Dispersant k n
ratio (w/w) concentration (%)
0.65 0 74.2
0.75 0 47.3
1.00 0 37.6
1.00 0.03 8.5
1.00 0.04 3.9
1.00 0.05 3.1
pseudoplasticity arises not only from gradual breakdown of
the inter-particle network of ceramic grains but also from
alignment of the yolk molecule at high shear rates.
The calculated n index for the 1.00 alumina-to-yolk ratio
slurries with 0.03–0.05 wt% dispersant is in range of 0.71–
0.82, thus indicating a behavior closer to Newtonian
(Table 1). On the other hand, n values for slurries without
dispersant addition and varied yolk are in the range of
0.32–0.51 indicating the shear thinning behavior. The
calculated k parameter, which is a consistency factor in
the power law model, decreased almost linearly with the
increasing dispersant concentrations but increased with the
increasing yolk contents in the ceramic suspension.
3.2 Foaming of slurry
Figure 3 shows the effect of drying temperature on volume
increase of slurry at 1.00 alumina mass-to- yolk ratio
without dispersant addition. It is well known that heat-
treatment can induce protein denaturation, thus leading to
changes in the functional properties of the treated proteins
[19]. During the process of denaturation, secondary va-
lency bonds such as hydrogen bridge bonds, ionic bonds,
hydrophobic bonds and disulphide bridges are partially
modified. In consequence of the partially or totally
unfolding, larger random coil structures are formed.
Between these unfolded protein chains new bonds are
statistically formed. This leads to consolidation and a
decrease in solubility [12].
Generally, foaming of slurry took place in three stages:
pre-heating of slurry without increasing volume, foaming
stage with the strongly increased until reaches a maximal
value and then undergoes a plateau (stabilizing stage).
During the pre-heating period, the structural properties of
protein were induced by heating, leading to changes in the
functional properties. Subsequently, during foam forma-
tion, proteins will (1) diffuse to the air–water interface,
concentrate and reduce surface tension; (2) partially unfold
and reorient such that the polar groups are directed towards
the polar phase; and (3) interact with one another via non-
covalent interactions and potentially covalent bonds to
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0.32
0.41
0.51
0.71
0.81
0.82
Fig. 3 The effect of drying temperature on volume increase of slurry
at 1.00 alumina mass-to-yolk ratio without dispersant addition
form a continuous viscoelastic film. For effective foam
formation, proteins must be capable of migrating and ori-
entating rapidly to form encapsulating films around the gas
bubbles to prevent destabilization. Foams may destabilize
due to: (1) diffusion of gas from small to large bubbles or
to the atmosphere, termed Ostwald ripening or dispropor-
tionation; (2) drainage of liquid from and through the foam
layer due to gravity; and (3) coalescence of bubbles due to
instability of the film between them [20].
The amphiphilic character of protein molecule causes a
decrease in surface tension, thus leading to possibly better
foaming properties [20, 21]. The foaming capacity values
determined from volume increase of slurry was 2.2, 1.97
and 1.7 v/v for slurry alumina-to-yolk ratios 0.65, 0.83 and
1.00 respectively. The foaming ability of slurries became
intensive with the increased yolk content.
The volume increases for slurry without and with 0.01%
dispersant addition at 60 min drying are presented in
Table 2. The foaming experiments involving slurries con-
taining dispersant (Darvan 821 A) showed that the foaming
capacity increased with dispersant addition of 0.01 wt% in
the slurry in the range of drying temperature 110–180 °C.
Compared to the slurries without dispersant which pro-
duces volume increase in the range 1.0–2.0 (v/v) the slur-
ries containing dispersant of 0.01% has improved foaming
capacity from 1.3 to 2.2 (v/v). It could be deducted that
dispersant molecules will decrease the viscosity of slurry
(see Fig. 2) and accelerate transfer proteins from interior of
the slurry towards the newly created surface, thus
decreasing the surface tensions and increasing the foaming
capacity.
The foam stability is the ability to retain air for a certain
period of time [22]. For certain drying time, the surface
tensions minimal value, hence the foaming capacity keeps
steady and stable. Foam stability relates to the stability
lamellae and the ability to retain the gas for a given time.
Foam stability is a reflection of foam film characteristics
such as impermeability to gas, viscoelastic characteristics
and mechanical strength of the film [20].
J Porous Mater (2011) 18:195–203 199

Table 2 The effect of the addition of 0.01 wt% dispersant into the
slurry on foaming capacity at 60 min drying
Drying Volume increase (v/v)
temperature (°C)
Added with 0.01% Without
dispersant dispersant

100 1.30 1.09

110 1.55 1.32
160 1.81 1.78
180 2.19 2.00

The stability of the foam relates to the decrease of foam

volume with time. We found that the green bodies after
demolding would be collapse when it dried less than
Fig. 5 TG curve of egg yolk
20 min time, whereas after drying time more than 20 min,
the green bodies would be steady. A photograph of typical
Thus, the heating was set up to 600 °C with a dwell time of
green bodies produced from the suspension after 13 and
1 h to allow ample time for the complete burnout of the
40 min drying is shown in Fig. 4.
yolk for creating pores.
3.3 Burn-out
3.4 Sintering
In general, foamed green body is easy to debinder than
Prepared alumina samples after sintering were performed
dense body, for it contains abundant cells and channels to
without significant deformations which indicated good
let organic components occupy and escape. Thermal
homogeneity of the materials. Figure 6 shows three sin-
analysis was used to optimize the burn-out schedule of the
tered porous alumina samples with cylindrical shape.
foamed body.
The relative density and shrinkage of sintered samples
Figure 5 shows a TGA curve for yolk carried out in air.
using slurry without dispersant addition is listed in Table 3.
The figure revealed that the first drop in TG appeared at
Sintered ceramics prepared in this work exhibited relative
*100 °C with a 51% weight loss which is due to water
densities in the range 29–50%, increased with varying
evaporation. The second drop occurs in the range of
alumina content. It can be explained that high alumina
*100–340 °C and experienced ca 24% weight loss which
substance of the slurry resulted in high viscosity, hence a
attributed to the removal of lipids. In the temperature range
decrease in foaming capacity. In addition, high solid frac-
of 340–550 °C, the decomposition of proteins occurred
tion itself also lead to high density of cell struts.
with a weight loss of 25%. From the graph, it is also evi-
Furthermore, with the increase of yolk content, the
dent that at 550 °C, the yolk was completely burned out.
sintered alumina shrunk increasingly. The shrinkage of
samples changed from 29 to 40% when the alumina-to-
yolk ratio decreased from 1.00 to 0.65. A substantial
shrinkage occurred as the proteins were removed.

3.5 Microstucture

Figure 7 shows the FESEM pictures of macrostructures of

Fig. 4 Comparison between green bodies of porous alumina with
1.00 alumina-to-yolk mass ratio and 0.01 wt% dispersant concentra-
tion after drying times at a 13 and b 40 min
porous alumina prepared from different slurry composi-
tions. It shows the macropores of 50–600 lm diameters in
average (Fig. 7a, b).
Figure 7c and d show the FESEM images of the
microstructure of sample after sintering at 1,550 °C. As the
amount of yolk increased more micropores are found, thus
showing poorer densification of particles. It could be
deducted that high yolk content resulted in low viscosity,
which corresponded to high foaming capacity and low
density. Moreover, the grain size of porous alumina walls

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Fig. 6 The sintered porous alumina ceramics with cylindrical shape
made by protein foaming-consolidation method
Table 3 Relative density and shrinkage of sintered alumina at vari-
ous alumina-to-yolk mass ratio without dispersant addition
Mass ratio of Shrinkage Relative
alumina-to-yolk (vol%) density (%)
(w/w)
0.65 39.9 29.4
0.75 36.4 47.2
0.83 32.5 49.5
1.00 29.3 45.2
shown irregular and in some parts small particles adsorb on
the large grains. There is much bonding area among grains.
It is well known that more bonding area usually leads to
higher strength between particles; consequently the frac-
ture of alumina bodies mainly happens at the particles
boundary.
In particular, the effect of drying time on the pore size of
alumina bodies has been investigated using SEM analysis.
From the macrostructure images indicated that the pore
size of alumina bodies increased with drying time. The
slurries were dried at 180 °C with alumina to yolk mass
ratio of 1.00. It is clear that the pore size is determined by
drying time; hence higher drying time leads to higher
foaming capacity (see Fig. 3) and corresponding with
bigger pore size.
Figure 8 shows top view SEM images of sintered alu-
mina porous bodies with the green bodies dried at tem-
peratures of 110 (a), 150 (b) and 180 °C (c). As the drying
temperature increased, the pore size of porous alumina
bodies increased as well. Sintered porous alumina prepared
in this work showed an increase in pore size from 25 to
375 lm as drying temperature increased from 110 to
180 °C. It can be explained that slurry drying at low
temperatures resulted in low foaming capacity, hence poor
pore generation. When dried at 110 °C, the alumina slurry
was slightly foamed with volume increasing of 1.1 (v/v; see
Fig. 3), thus the created pores of sintered bodies were
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J Porous Mater (2011) 18:195–203
mainly attributed to protein removal (Fig. 8a). As a result,
pores of small sizes and ununiform shape are generated. On
the other hand, when dried at 150 and 180 °C, protein
foaming took place well and produced most pores with
spherical shape in the porous bodies (Fig. 8b, c).
Figure 8d shows side view SEM image of sintered
samples prepared using the slurry dried at 180 °C. We can
see that pores sizes is in the range of 50–200 lm and it
indicated that the alumina body has open pore with good
interconnectivity. In tissue engineering, particularly poros-
ity, pore size distribution, pore morphology and orientation,
as well as the degree of pore interconnectivity significantly
affect bone penetration in macropore of implants, thus
mediating implant-tissue osseointegration [23].
Dissimilarity in pore distribution was found in samples;
the upper part of porous bodies shows higher porosity than
the lower part due to insufficient slurry stability during the
drying process. The stability of slurry was not fully
achieved because alumina particles tend to agglomerate
and to precipitate over slurry foaming process. Conse-
quently, slurry in upper part which containing high yolk
was more exhaustively foamed than the lower part.
Generally the foaming process has to be carried out prior
to the stiffening of the protein. At low temperatures
the material has still a remaining extensibility which allows
the deformation of the bodies. This is comparable with the
moment of dough rupture in the process of baking bread,
which is caused by similar mechanism [24]. Thus, control
of drying process is crucial for producing foams of high
structural integrity and good mechanical properties. The
dispersant concentration played an important role in
determining the microstructure of the sintered porous alu-
mina, as shown in Fig. 9.
All samples were prepared using slurries with alumina-
to-yolk ratio of 1.00 and then dried at 180 °C. It can be
seen that the pore size of alumina bodies increased with
dispersant concentration. As the dispersant content was
increased, the pores became bigger, more interconnected
with less dense and thinner pore walls, important factors
that influence the mechanical properties of the porous
materials. Besides, the morphology of pores was altered
from spherical to polygonal shape. The pore size of sin-
tered bodies was in the range of 200–1,000 lm. It can be
explained that low viscosity of the slurry resulted in high
foaming capacity, hence increased the pore generation.
Samples produced by the above technique have porosity up
to 78% when 0.01wt.% dispersant was added. The apparent
densities of sintered alumina as a function of dispersant
addition with constant alumina to yolk mass ratio were
found in the range 0.7–1.8 g/cm3. These results suggest
that porous alumina can be a potential candidate for
floating microcarrier application especially in a bioreactor
cell culture.
J Porous Mater (2011) 18:195–203 201

Fig. 7 FESEM cross-section of porous ceramics for alumina-to-yolk mass ratios of a 0.75 and b 0.65 and its grain morphology of c 0.75 and
d 0.65

Fig. 8 Top view SEM images of sintered alumina porous bodies with the green bodies dried at temperatures of 110 (a), 150 (b) and 180 °C (c).
Side view image for 180 °C drying is shown in (d)

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Fig. 9 SEM micrograph of sintered samples prepared using slurries with added dispersant concentrations of: a 0.01, b 0.03, c 0.04 and d 0.05
wt%
3.6 Mechanical strength
In order to evaluate mechanical properties of the samples,
compressive strength tests were conducted. The compres-
sive strength remarkably increased from 1.07 to 5.72 MPa
with the decreasing porosity from 71 to 40 vol.%, as shown
in Fig. 10. Many studies have been made to establish a
relationship between strength and microstructural proper-
ties such as pore structure and pore size distribution. The
strength of a porous ceramic is strongly affected by the
Fig. 10 Relationship between porosity and compressive strength
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J Porous Mater (2011) 18:195–203
strength of the ceramic wall (or strut) and the surface flaws
on the strut. Porosity is also considered to have a significant
impact on compressive strength.
The results of compressive strength measurement were
fit to three mathematical models given in Table 4, to
investigate the relationship between pore structure and
compressive strength. In these equations, ‘‘rc’’ is defined as
the strength of a porous material. ‘‘rc0’’ is the theoretical
strength of a material at zero porosity. Porosity is repre-
sented with ‘‘n’’ and ‘‘m’’ is a constant. Figure 10 shows
plots of porosity and compressive strength relationship for
the results of compressive strength measurements and the
three models. A smooth connection has been obtained
between relationship from experiment results and the
mathematical models. The error percentage of Balshin,
Ryshkewitch, and Hasselman models were 20, 25 and 18%,
respectively. Based on all models and the experiment facts,
Table 4 Mathematical models between porosity and compressive
strength [25]
Model Empirical equation
Balshin rc = rc0(1-n)m
Ryshkewitch rc = rc0 exp(-mn)
Hasselman rc = rc0–mn
J Porous Mater (2011) 18:195–203
it can be deduced that the compressive strength of porous
ceramics decrease with an increase in porosity, which were
represented well by our results.
4 Conclusions
A novel method to make porous alumina ceramics with
controllable properties using egg yolk both as consolidat-
ing and foaming agent was successfully developed. The
physical properties of the ceramic like pore sizes, shrink-
age, porosities and compressive strength were controlled
by altering initial yolk contents employed in the slurry and
foaming process condition. Low alumina-to-yolk ratio in
slurry resulted in low viscosity, thus providing high
foaming capacity and consequently manufacturing of big-
ger pore sizes. The slurry drying at high temperatures
resulted in high foaming capacity and bigger pore sizes as
well as privileged pore generation. The use of different
dispersant concentrations in 1.00 alumina-to-yolk ratio
slurries transmitted the rheological conditions, which
resulted in changes in the pore sizes and shapes. Depending
on dispersant concentration (0.01–0.05 wt%) in the alu-
mina slurry, the density ranged from 0.7 to 1.8 g/cm3 and
the mean pore size varied from 200 to 1,000 lm, while the
pore shapes altered from spherical to polygonal. The
compressive strength of the porous bodies increased from
1.1 MPa at 40% porosity to 5.7 MPa at 71% porosity. A
good correlation has been obtained between the relation-
ship from experiment data and other mathematical models.
The present method is applicable to fabricate a floating
microcarrier for cell culture in a bioreactor.
Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank Faculty of
Engineering and Research Management Center, International Islamic
University Malaysia for providing the financial support under the
research project No. EDW B 0901-197.
203
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