Dispersibility of pretreated polyacrylic acid‐modified SiC powder

A slurry with high dispersibility is crucial for slip casting technology. The weakly acidic SiC powder with high dispersibility was prepared with polyacrylic acid pretreated by the sodium hydroxide (adjusted pH = 5). The pretreated polyacrylic acid can be effectively adsorbed on the surface of SiC powder, and its utilization efficiency (37%) was better than the unpretreated one (21%). The modified SiC powder with pH = 6 was obtained by polyacrylic acid modification, and the maximum solid content was 61.2 Vol%. The optimum of the pretreated polyacrylic acid addition amount was 1 wt% based on Zeta potential, solid content, and viscosity analysis data. Compared with the unmodified SiC, the Zeta potential absolute value of the modified (-63 mV) was higher due to a large amount of anionic modifier adsorbed on particle surfaces. The modified SiC slurry was more stable because the modification increases the electrostatic repulsion among the SiC molecules.