High-porosity whisker-mullite/corundum membrane support prepared from recycled industrial waste coal cinder

Abstract Recycled coal cinder was utilized as a raw material for the preparation of a high-porosity and low-cost whisker-mullite/alumina membrane support via in situ synthesis of mullite whiskers with MoO3 and AlF3 as additives. The effects of the sintering temperature and additives on the physical properties (porosity, shrinkage, phase composition, microstructure, pore size, nitrogen permeation, and tortuosity factor) of the porous mullite-based membrane supports were investigated in detail. Based on the synergistic effect of AlF3 and MoO3, the porosity of the as-synthesized membrane supports was as high as 60%. This is attributed to the reduction in the viscosity of the solid phase reaction interface between the mullite precursors by the MoO3 additives, thus promoting the formation of mullite grains, while the AlF3 additive effectively promoted the anisotropic growth of whisker-mullite via vapor deposition. This whisker-mullite membrane support with a cross-interlocking structure has an inherently unimodal pore-size distribution and low tortuosity factor (∼0.4).