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Published February 2012 | public
Journal Article

Liquid Desiccant Solvent Extraction of Alumina-Filled Thermoreversible Gels

Abstract

A liquid desiccant solvent extraction technique is introduced to significantly reduce the amount of warping during drying in thermoreversibly gelcast alumina samples by eliminating capillary stresses during the initial solvent removal stage. This process is combined with a secondary drying step in a vacuum oven with an in-line solvent trap, allowing for the complete recovery of the alcohol solvent used in producing gels. Optimal concentrations and immersion times for poly(tert-butyl acrylate)-based and water-based liquid desiccants are determined, along with the osmotic stresses and equilibrium solvent concentrations of gels immersed in these desiccants. Solvent loss during the liquid desiccant solvent extraction step, volumetric shrinkage during drying and sintering, and sintered porosity are measured. It is determined that a ~10 wt% poly(tert-butyl acrylate)/90 wt% isopropyl alcohol liquid desiccant is optimal.

Additional Information

© 2011 The American Ceramic Society. Manuscript No. 29418. Received March 06, 2011; approved September 07, 2011. This work is supported by the MRSEC program of the National Science Foundation (DMR-0520513) at the Materials Research Center of Northwestern University. Portions of this work were performed in the Keck-II facility of the NUANCE Center and the Optical Microscopy and Metallography facility at Northwestern University, supported by NSF-NSEC, NSF-MRSEC, Keck Foundation, the State of Illinois, and Northwestern University. The authors thank Xinqi Chen for assistance with profilometry measurements.

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 26, 2023