文摘
The studies on ultra high temperature ceramic foams are very limited due to the harsh synthesis conditions and the lack of appropriate preceramic precursors. In this work, highly porous stoichiometric zirconium carbide foams are prepared by direct foaming of zirconia sols followed by carbothermal reduction at 1500?°C under argon. The microstructure of the obtained ZrC foams can be tailored by controlling the viscosities of the sols, the concentrations of the blowing and curing agents. The ZrC foams can be prepared with open- or closed-cell structure in a controllable manner. The densities of ZrC foams vary from 0.12 to 0.53?g/cm3, while the porosities vary from 93.0 to 67.6?% correspondingly.