Effect of Starch Addition on Microstructure and Strength of Ball Clay Membrane

The use of starch as pore-forming agent is one of the frequently used methods to produce porous ceramics membrane with controlled microstructure (porosity and pore size) because corn starch are cheap, non- toxic and environmental friendly. A membrane with the mixture 0–35 wt% of corn starch and ball clay were prepared by compaction process and sintered at 1200°C. Thermal analysis has been done to identify the minimum sintering temperature for ball clay. The sintered membranes show the range value of shrinkage is 4.5–22.76 % and apparent porosity of 9.14–31.83 % depending on the starch content. The pore structures were analyzed by FESEM. The strength of sintered samples was tested by 3-point bending test. The flexural strength reduced from 21–7 MPa. These clay membrane are promising porous ceramic structure for water filtration applications due to their excellent combination physical and mechanical properties.