This article discusses the creation of a porous mullite ceramic through the incorporation of fly ash cenospheres (FAC) into mullite powder through the gelcasting process. Sintering temperature and the amount of FAC added were investigated as factors affecting density and strength. The authors found that the porous mullite ceramics had a high strength, and high porosity (48.1-72.2%) Thermal conductivity was measured and was determined to be 0.16-0.22 W/mK....
This research studied the effect of the addition of vinyl-modified silica and raw silica additions to polymer-silica nanocomposite foams. Extensive physical property characterization was undertaken after their addition to quantify their influence. TEM found that silica particles added through the vinyl-modified silica dispersed better than the raw silica. This created foams with a higher density and smaller cell size. A slight reduction in the thermal conductivity after the additions was ...