Pore architectures and oil absorption behavior of porous mullite beads fabricated via dripping-ice templating

Porous mullite beads with a good spherical shape and a uniform size distribution of about 1.2 mm were fabricated by ice-templating in combination with dripping methods. These internal pore structures exhibited a radially oriented laminar channel from the center of the sphere to the surface. With the decreasing of freeze temperature to ?196°C, the thickness of pore walls and the width of pore decreased. The mullite grain morphology in the pore wall was also influenced by the frozen temperature. High aspect ratio mullite grain was formed in the pore wall of beads frozen at ?25°C, while low aspect ratio mullite whiskers constituted the pore wall of beads frozen at ?196°C. In addition, the obtained porous mullite beads exhibited a good oil adsorption performance under capillary force for kerosene, edible oil, and motor oil with adsorption values of 3.37, 4.07, and 4.04 g/g, respectively.