Method for the morphological characterization of powder raw materials for the manufacturing of ceramics

In this work an industrially applicable, relatively cheap and fast method is proposed for the morphological evaluation of ceramic powders. It is based on the theoretical principles of the flow of gas through porous media. Besides information on the average primary crystallite or aggregate size the proposed method provides also information on the strength and the dynamic behavior of the powder aggregates during processing. Such information can be of particular importance for the stable operation of industrial solids processes the performance of which depends on the average primary particle size or on the aggregation state of the solids entering the unit operation (e.g. dry-mixing, solid state reactions during prefiring, etc.). Application of this method on various Fe2O3 powders revealed good agreement between the obtained results and the behavior of those powders when used as raw materials for the synthesis of MnZn-ferrites.