Sol-coated preparation and characterization of macroporous α-Al2O3 membrane support

A simple approach namely sol-coated technique has been developed for the low cost fabrication of macroporous ceramic under a far below common sintering temperature of alumina with large dimension grains. The prepared green support shows higher sinteractive than the one treated by wet impregnation method under the same sintering conditions. The support possesses great potential applications with 6.63-7.71 mu m in pore size, 39% open porosity as well as > 45 MPa mechanical strength at the sintering temperature range of 1350 degrees C - 1500 degrees C. The results indicate that the nitrogen gas flux and pure water permeation value was 51 252.35 m(3) m(-2) h(-1) bar(-1), 98.43 m(3) m(-2) h(-1) bar(-1), respectively, which were more dependent on the pore structure and pore size distribution than open porosity.