TANG Zijuan ¹, LIANG Jian ², JIANG Weihui ^1,2, LIU Jianmin ², LAO Xinbin ², JIANG Feng ¹， FENG Guo ²
(1. School of Material Science and Engineering, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, Jingdezhen 333403, Jiangxi, China; 2. National Engineering Research Center for Domestic and Building Ceramics, Jingdezhen 333001, Jiangxi, China)

Abstract: Foam ceramic was prepared by high temperature foaming method using sand shale as raw material and SiC as foaming agent. XRF, XRD, SEM, EDS, DTA-TG and corresponding physical tests were used to characterize the phase composition, microstructure and performance of foam ceramic. The effects of firing temperature and SiC content on bulk density, flexural strength and porosity of foam ceramic were systematically investigated. The results show that the bulk density and flexural strength of the samples decrease with the increasing firing temperature, whereas the porosity increases. The bulk density and flexural strength of the samples decrease and the porosity increases with the increase of foaming agent amount. When the firing temperature is 1150 °C and the SiC content is 0.6wt.%, the prepared foam ceramic possesses excellent performance with the bulk density of 0.370 g/cm³, the flexural strength of 2.54 MPa, the porosity of 84.92% and the thermal conductivity coefficient of 0.140 W/(m·K), which can be a insulating material of wall.
Key words: sand shale; foam ceramic; firing temperature; foam agent