The electrophoretic deposition process of Ni nano-particles was employed for self-repairing of heat exchanger tubes. For electrophoretic deposition of Ni nano-particles on pitted Ni alloy specimen, a constant electric field of 100 V was applied to the specimen for 180 s in Ni-dispersed solution. It was found that as electrophoretic deposition proceeded, the size of the pit remarkably decreased due to the agglomeration of Ni nano-particles at the pit. This strongly suggests that the electrophoretic mobility of the charged particles is larger for the pit with a higher current value rather than outer surfaces with a lower current value.

The coating of conductive polypyrrole (Ppy) on nonconductive ceramic substrates was performed by polymerization of pyrrole (Py) in an aqueous solution. The Ppy film was characterized by scanning electron microscopy and conductivity measurements. Electrophoretic deposition of bimodal alumina suspension prepared with a phosphate ester was performed using Ppy film as a cathode. Fabrication of alumina ceramics with irregular shapes or complicated patterns were also attempted by sintering the deposits together with the Ppy coated substrates in air.

Two approaches for the fabrication of tailored powder composites with specially distributed pore-grain structure and chemical composition are investigated. Electrophoretic Deposition (EPD) followed by microwave sintering is employed to obtain functionally graded materials (FGM) by in-situ controlling the deposition bath suspension composition. and zeolite FGM are successfully synthesized using this technique. In order to fabricate an aligned porous structure, unidirectional freezing followed by freeze drying and sintering is employed. By controlling the temperature gradient during freezing of powder slurry, a unidirectional ice-ceramic structure is obtained. The frozen specimen is then subjected to freeze drying to sublimate the ice. The obtained capillary-porous ceramic specimen is consolidated by sintering. The sintering of the graded structure is modeled by the continuum theory of sintering.