New consolidation process inspired from making steamed bread to prepare Si3N4 foams by protein foaming method

A new consolidation process had been developed for preparing Si3N4 ceramic foams by using protein foaming method, which was inspired from the preparation of steamed bread. The main advantage of this consolidation process was no crack development during foamed slurry consolidation process. By using this new consolidation, Si3N4 ceramic foams with open porosities of 79.6–87.3% and compressive strength of 2.5–22 MPa were prepared. Protein addition and solid content on mechanical properties and pore structures of the as-prepared ceramic foams were investigated. Results indicated that the open porosity decreases with protein addition and solid content while compressive strength increased with solid content. With the increase of solid content, pores of the ceramic foams became regular in shape and uniform in size while both size and number of windows on the walls decreased.