Dispersion of Ceramic Particles in Aqueous Media with Surface-Grafted Dispersant

Abstract

One important goal to be achieved in the colloidal processing of ceramics is to fully disperse a solid substance into finely divided particles in a liquid medium to avoid the generation of agglomerates. A novel preparation method of aqueous ceramic slurries is described in this paper. The process can be characterized by creating a chemically grafted dispersant molecule layer on particles' surfaces which is very soluble in water. The tuned configuration of dispersant molecules causes neither bridging nor depletion flocculation but induces steric repulsion effectively. The obtained aqueous slurry was quite stable and yielded green bodies with high relative density.