abstract |
Method for the manufacture of bonded and self-bonded bodies from certain particulate ceramic oxides or carbides by heating a shaped mixture containing the particulate ceramic material and from 1 to 10 percent of its weight of an additive which includes an organic moiety and an inorganic moiety and is non-polymeric in respect of the inorganic moiety, and undergoes decomposition on being heated under atmospheric pressure, said additive being exemplified by such organic compounds as aluminum-dibutyl phosphate; tris-(trimethylsiloxy)-aluminum; and diethyl-(triethoxy-silyl)-vanadate, to produce, by the thermal decomposition, an inorganic residue which remains substantially non-volatile up to temperatures at which the particles of the particulate ceramic material become self-bonding; the mixture containing the particulate ceramic material and additive being fired to a temperature of about 200 DEG to about 600 DEG C, at which the additive is thermally decomposed and the ceramic particles become bonded by the pyrolytic residue, and optionally further fired to a temperature between about 600 DEG and about 1800 DEG C at which the particles of the particulate ceramic material become self-bonding. |