A homemade freezing unit for ice-templating

Abstract

A novel freezing unit was developed for use in ceramic processing by the freeze casting technique. This step is crucial, since the macrostructure promoted by this technique is formed during freezing. Several authors present basic information about the apparatus used in the freezing step, but there are no studies that describe a complete unit as we do in this work and there is no commercial equipment for this purpose. The components of the freezing unit were selected according to function, suitability to project, cost and market availability. Advanced ceramic samples of ZnFe₂O₄, MnFe₂O₄, CoFe₂O₄, NiFe₂O_4, SiO₂, Al₂O₃ and metallic Cu were produced using the freezing unit and the results of typical macrostructure and porosity analysis validated the chosen setup.