Patent ID: 7922964

Claim:
A method for manufacturing ceramic hollow fibers from nanoscale powders, the method comprising: manufacturing a ceramic mass by transforming a nanoscale metal oxide, carbide, nitride or sulfide powder with an oxycarboxylic acid, compounded to the ceramic mass with at least one solvent and an acrylate and/or methacrylate as a polymeric binder, the metal oxide, carbide, nitride, or sulfide powder having a particle size of between 1 and 50 nm and the ceramic mass having a solid content greater than 30 vol %; adding to the ceramic mass a carbon based, organic or inorganic component as a sacrificial material in amount between 5 and 20 wt %; extruding or spinning the ceramic mass to hollow fiber blanks; polymerizing the acrylate and/or methacrylate binder by using a radial starter; and sintering the blanks to form fibers having an external diameter <200 μm and a pore size of between 0.5 and 100 nm.