Preparation of Al2TiO5 ceramic fibers and thermal expansion, insulation, and strength of ZrO2-Al2TiO5 fiberboards
Abstract In the field of thermal insulation, Zirconia (ZrO2) fiber and its products have high thermal expansion coefficients and poor thermal shock resistance, which leads to great challenges in the industry. In this work, aluminum titanate (Al2TiO5) single-phase ceramic fibers were prepared by a sol-gel method, using polyacetylacetone titanium-aluminum (PAAT) as the precursors with electrospinning technology. The single-phase Al2TiO5 fibers exhibited excellent high-temperature resistance, and maintained fibers morphology at a high temperature of 1500 ºC. Next, ZrO2-Al2TiO5 (ZAT) fiberboards were prepared by mixing ZrO2 fibers and Al2TiO5 fibers. The mixture was heat-treated to 1500 ºC to prepare the ZAT fiberboards. Characterization results indicated that the contents of Al2TiO5 fibers have obvious effects on the performance of thermal insulation, strength, thermal expansion, and thermal shock resistance. Particularly, the thermal expansion coefficient of ZAT-8 fiberboards was about 20% lower than that of ZAT-0 fiberboards. These attractive characteristics might give ZAT fiberboards enormous potential in the field of high-temperature insulation.