Thermal protection systems (TPS) are a group of materials that are indispensable for protecting spacecraft from the aerodynamic heating occurring during entry into an atmosphere. Among candidate materials for TPS, ceramic insulation materials are usually considered for reusable TPS. In this study, ceramic insulation materials, such as alumina enhanced thermal barrier (AETB), are fabricated via typical ceramic processing from ceramic fiber and additives. Mixtures of silica and alumina fibers are used as raw materials, with the addition of B4C to bind fibers together. Reaction-cured glass is also added on top of AETB to induce water-proof functionality or high emissivity. Some issues, such as the elimination of clumps in the AETB, and processing difficulties in the production of reusable surface insulation are reported as well.

Two different schemes were adopted to fabricate ordered macroporous structures with face centered cubic lattice of air spheres. Monodisperse polymeric latex suspension, which was synthesized by emulsifier-free emulsion polymerization, was mixed with metal oxide ceramic nanoparticles, followed by evaporation-induced self-assembly of the mixed hetero-colloidal particles. After calcination, inverse opal was generated during burning out the organic nanospheres. Inverse opals made of silica or iron oxide were fabricated according to this procedure. Other approach, which utilizes ceramic precursors instead of nanoparticles was adopted successfully to prepare ordered macroporous structure of titania with skeleton structures as well as lithium niobate inverted structures. Similarly, two different schemes were utilized to obtain disordered macroporous structures with random arrays of macropores. Disordered macroporous structure made of indium tin oxide (ITO) was obtained by fabricating colloidal glass of polystyrene microspheres with low monodispersity and subsequent infiltration of the ITO nanoparticles followed by heat treatment at high temperature for burning out the organic microspheres. Similar random structure of titania was also fabricated by mixing polystyrene building block particles with titania nanoparticles having large particle size followed by the calcinations of the samples.

본연구에서는 n-type 세라믹 초전도체인 Nd2-xCexCuO4상의 산소함량에 따른 ?기적저항의 변화를 고찰하고자 하였다. 일반적인 소결과 어닐링과정을 결쳐 제조된 Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO4-x 시편을 여러 온도와 산소분압의 분위기하에서 어닐링시킴으로써 산소의 함유량이 다른 시편들을 준비하였고 각각의 시편의 산소함량은 TGA(Thermogravimetric Analysis0에 의해 측정하였다. Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO4-x시편의 전기적 저항 측정은 표준 4-탐침방법을 이용하여 액체헬륨을 주입시켜 상온으로부터 4K까지 측정하였다. Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO4-x시편의 산소함량, 3.96≤4-x≤4.0의 범위에서 전기적저항을 측정한 결과 초전도특성이 나타나기 시작한 임계산소함량은 4-x=3.990이었고 이때의 임계온도 Tc=12K이었다. 또한 임계온도, Tc는 산소함량 4-x=3.96에서 24K로 측정되었다. 특이할 만한 현상은 CuO/Cu2O 열역학적 상전이가 일어나는 조건이 Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO4-x 시편의 초전도가 일어나는 임계와 일치하였다. 즉, Cu2O가 안정한 영역에서는 초전도특성이 나타났고 CuO가 안정한 영역에서는 초전도특성이 나타나지 않았다.