HE Youpeng, CHAO Zisheng, WANG Mingyu, LAI Jianxin, HAN Shenghua

(College of Materials Science and Engineering, Changsha University of Science & Technology,

Changsha 410114, Hunan, China)

Abstract: Wet ceramic spheres were obtained by using auto-drop device with a slurry consisting of pore-forming agent and sodium alginate template, leading to super-hydrophobic ZnO2-SiO2 porous ceramic microspheres, after drying, roasting and PFAS chemical modification. Structure, morphology, specific surface area, static contact angle and pressure resistance of the porous ceramic microspheres obtained at 1100 ℃, 1200 ℃ and 1400 ℃ were characterized by using XRD, SEM, EDS, mercury injection, contact angle meter and universal tester. The ceramic microspheres sintered at 1200 ℃ possessed a high micropore-mesoporous specific surface areas of 34.55 m2·g−1, a controlled pore volume of 0.248 mL·g−1, a mesopore-macropore surface area of 30.98 m2·g−1 and a pore volume of 0.688 mL·g−1. In addition, the porous ceramic microspheres were strongly hydrophobic with water contact angles of 161.5 ° (outer surface) and 150.4 ° (inner surface).

Key words: porous ceramic microspheres; sodium alginate; drop ball curing method; super-hydrophobic; ZrO2-SiO2