Noor Asliza Ismail Adnen
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Nur Atiqah Azwa Joulme Morad
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Mohd Aidil Adhha Abdullah
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Mohd Al Amin Muhamad Nor
The abundancy of ball clay can be transform into more useful form. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of different amount of dispersant on ceramic system. Ball clay from Kampung Dengir, Besut, Terengganu was used as starting powder while sodium silicate was used as dispersant to produce good flow ability, minimum viscosity and controllable ceramic slurry. Ceramic slurry was prepared by adding additives such as binder, flux, filler and dispersant, casted onto POP mould to obtain ceramic body. Ceramic then cut into test pieces (8cm x 2cm) and mixed for 2 h and aged for 2 days before dried at 70 °C overnight and sintered at temperature of 800-1200 °C in furnace for 2 h with heating rate 5 °C/min. Slurries also tested for rheological properties using rheometer (brand Thermo Haake). Viscosity and shear stress were measured to investigate the rhoelogical behaviour of slip with different amount of dispersant (0.03 mL to 0.06 mL/200 mL of sample). Characterization of raw samples has been done using X-ray diffractometer (XRD) showing the presence of kaolinite and quartz. Effect of dispersant on rheological behavior, rate of shrinkage, water absorption, porosity and density were investigated It was found that increase in amount of dispersant added exhibit the best rheological behavior, and 0.05 mL dispersant was the optimum amount in term of rate of shrinkage, water absorption, porosity and density. As a conclusion, 0.05 mL was the optimum dispersant which gives best rheological behavior and almost fault-free ceramic bodies