Development of high performance sintered wicks for miniature CPLs

The slip casting technique was used to prepare the samples of sintered wick. Preparation process of the sintered samples was introduced. Some wicks are developed by means of the hydrogen reduction sintering method. The influences of different sintering parameters including sintering temperature and sintering time on the pore size, porosity, mechanical strength and distortion of the sintered wick have been analyzed. Their electronic photographs and the test results revealed that the sintered wicks have excellent properties with the porosity larger than 68%, the mean pore size of about 4 μm, high mechanical strength and low distortion. The wicks have the permeability in range of 10^-12 to 10^-13 m². It is shown that these sintered wicks can remarkably improve the performance of CPLs.