X-ray Curing of Organic Bonded High Temperature Resistant Ceramics

Rainer Puchleitner

Research output: ThesisDoctoral Thesis

Abstract

The present work investigates the feasibility of a novel, X-ray radiation based approach towards the curing of high temperature resistant ceramic materials with large wall diameters. In contrast to conventional irradiation methods such as UV and e-beam, X-rays can penetrate deeply into solid materials. The calculated and measured penetration depth of X-rays in state of the art ceramic materials showed, that this method is suitable to cure composites with diameters up to 20 cm. X-ray based curing processes require a special chemistry for the binder resin. To produce composites with sufficient mechanical properties, resin formulations based on epoxy novolacs and photolabile initiators (photoacid generators) were developed. The cationic curing behavior of these systems was investigated using UV-illumination as well as X-ray irradiation to obtain an optimal formulation for the application in the production of ceramics. An additional goal was to increase the adhesion between binder resin and the inorganic components of the ceramic material. Therefore, a surface modification of metal oxides such as aluminum oxide using organosilanes was carried out. The silanes contained functional groups that are capable of bonding both to the inorganic particles, and to phenolic resins and also epoxy novolacs. It is shown that X-ray processing of high temperature resistant ceramics provides a novel and viable method to cure high density composites with wall diameters of up to 20 cm. Compared to conventional thermal curing, the X-ray based process offers the benefit of lower overall energy consumption and higher curing speed enabling a significantly faster throughput in the industrial production of refractory materials.
Translated title of the contributionRöntgenhärtung von organisch gebundenen hochtemperaturbeständigen Keramiken
Original languageEnglish
QualificationDr.mont.
Supervisors/Advisors
  • Kern, Wolfgang, Assessor A (internal)
  • Hofer, Ferdinand, Assessor B (external), External person
  • Rieß, Gisbert, Co-Supervisor (internal)
Publication statusPublished - 2016

Bibliographical note

embargoed until null

Keywords

  • ceramics
  • Composites
  • binder resin
  • X-ray curing
  • cationic polymerization

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