Dipankar Ghosh¹, Mahesh Banda¹; ¹Old Dominion University

Ice-templated ceramics exhibit macroscopic structural anisotropy, but at microstructural length-scale contain equiaxed grains within the lamella walls and lamellar bridges. We have shown that variations of particle size and particle morphology along with unidirectional solidification kinetics can result in unprecedented modifications of the length-scale features in ice-templated ceramics and marked changes in compressive mechanical properties. However, there is a need to thoroughly understand the interactions of fine-grained ceramic matrix and anisotropic particles and microstructure evolution and structural stability during high-temperature sintering. In this work, we aim to understand the progressive interactions of fine-grained alumina ceramic matrix and alumina platelets and microstructural modifications within the lamella walls of ice-templated porous ceramics during sintering. Moreover, our aim is to connect the local structural modifications to the macroscopic mechanical response and identify the parameters that are critical to tailor the macroscopic properties. The results will further advance the structure-property relationships in ice-templated ceramics.