PRODUCTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF BIO-DERIVED MULLITE-FELDSPAR CERAMIC COMPOSITE FOR MEMBRANE APPLICATIONS

Abstract

Mesoporous membrane is a physical barrier, allowing selective transport of mass species, it possesses significant pore sizes between 2 and 50 nm and characterised by ordered pore structures and high surface areas (-1000 mg). Mesoporous membrane is widely used for separation and purification in many industries, such as chemical industries, pharmaceutical industries and many others. In this research, experimental studies were carried out on the synthesis and characterization of mullite-feldspar ceramic composite from Okpella kaolin and Ifon clay. The clay materials were prepared and weighed according to pre-charge calculation followed by blending. Four samples were produced from milled powders via unixaial compaction. Sample A consists of 75% Kaolin and 25% Feldspar while samples B, C and D contained Kaolin-Feldspar composite with varying (40, 30 and 20 wt%) weight percent of hen’s eggshell additive Samples were sintered at 1000° and 1250° and the sintered samples were characterized by XRD, SEM and universal testing machine. The results show the evolution of Mullite in form of plates and its quantity in sample A increases with increase in sintering temperature. Furthermore, results revealed that addition of hen’s eggshell favoured formation of mullite plates at 1000℃ in samples B, C and D, however, this amount reduces at sintering temperature of 1250℃. Also, the result indicated that eggshell addition significantly improved mechanical properties and apparent porosity of the samples. Sample B with 40% hen’s eggshell, sintered at 1250℃ clearly exhibited the optimum parameters for ceramic composite membrane production