Method for manufacture of oxide ceramic bodies with a high surface area-to-mass ratio and high strength

Abstract

The invention concerns a method for the manufacture of oxide ceramic bodies with a high ratio of surface area to mass and high strength. These bodies manufactured by the method according to the invention are particularly suitable for forming composite materials, to increase the strength and refractoriness of components, for example and above all those of plastic and light metal components. The method according to the invention consists of the solidification of eutectic, eutectoid or peritectic oxide-halide system, wherein the halides can subsequently be removed by dissolution and re-used. According to the system of raw materials, selected composition, temperature gradient and rate of solidification, plates firmly bonded together by twinning, separate plates or columnar oxide bodies can be produced, with particularly low wall thicknesses or diameters of, for example, approximately 0.1 to 0.2 .mu.m. By combining the methods of "directional solidification" from the field of metallurgy with the method according to the invention, it is possible to manufacture oriented single crystals which are separate from each other, in the form of plates or fibers (whiskers) of any length.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.