Molten salt mediated in-situ template formation of reticulated foams of complex oxides and carbides

Abstract

A novel low temperature molten salt mediated in-situ template formation (MSMITF) strategy was developed to synthesise high quality reticulated foams of complex oxides and carbides from their single oxide and carbon counterparts, respectively. As working tools, CaZrO3 and TiC foams were prepared in CaCl2 and KCl at as low as 1300 and 1050 °C, respectively, which retained largely major macroporous features of the pristine ZrO2 and C template foams, demonstrating well the feasibility of the MSMITF strategy. It is believed that the proposed strategy would be universally applicable to preparing a range of complex oxide and carbide foams, potentially benefiting various important areas.