Preparation of titania membrane supports for treating nuclear waste

Abstract

This work investigated the effect of sintering temperature and corn starch content on porosity, permeability and mechanical properties of support^, ceramic produced from an commercial Degussa P25 titanium dioxide with particle size approximately of the 21 nm. In the preparation of ceramic support, was used three suspension of TiO₂ containing corn starch as pore-forming agent, in proportions of 0, 15 and 30%. The suspensions containing 10% w/w of binder (PVA) were dried in the spray dryer producing granulated powder, followed by pressing uniaxial and sintering at temperatures of the 900, 1100 and 1150 °C. The effect of sintering temperature with the concentration of the pore-forming agent was studied for obtaining suitable pore size and porosity. Analysis of the results obtained indicate that good level of porosity was achieved with the lowest sintering temperature employed, i.e., 900 °C and 30% pore-forming agent. For more large temperature, no permeability could be measured, since the level of sintering is very high due to densification, making the material unsuitable for support