Alumina (Al2O3), zirconia (ZrO2) and silicon carbide (SiC) based ceramics have a large number of applications in the ceramic industry. Among the most relevant stages of the fabrication process of these materials, mixture and shaping deserve special attention. The success of these stages depends on the knowledgement of the suspension electrokinetics properties containing the appropriate additives. In this work, the electrokinetics properties of ethanolic suspensions of Al2O3, ZrO2 or SiC were studied as a function of the adsorption of specific additives. Al3+ was tested on Al2O3 and SiC suspensions, and polyvinylbutyral (PVB) was tested on all suspensions to evaluate its influence on the suspension stability. It was shown that PVB is adsorbed on the surface of all powders under experiment, and its adsorption was observed to be higher when the surface was positively charged. These surface positive charges were spontaneously generated on ZrO2-MgO ethanol suspension. However on Al2O3 and SiC, this surface situation was only achieved after the adsorption of Al3+.
ceramic suspensions; alumina; zirconia; silicon carbide; PVB; electrokinetic behavior
