History
In terms of being simply a process by which powder can be made into a monolith, freeze casting could be as old as the earth. A material called laminar opaline silica or LOS is believed to be formed by the freeze casting of volcanic ash, some soils containing the required sols to make the gel.
Artificially it is also an old process, having been known and studied for 100 years or more, but never brought to significant industrial application. Lottermoser, a German, wrote a paper on 'das Ausfrieren von Hydrosolen' (the Freezing of Hydrosols) in 1908. Through the 20th century various people have patented techniques using freeze-gelation, most being centred on the use of ceramics as refractory materials. A furnace lining brick, or an investment casting mold, can be easily fabricated using this method.
Recently there was a flurry of interest in freeze-casting at the University of Bath, UK, which led most significantly to two doctoral theses, by J. Laurie in 1995 and by M. Statham in 1998. Taken together in chronological order, these form a good introduction to the technique for the interested party.
Read more about this topic: Freeze Casting
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“History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. It does as if it would go to the beginning of things, which natural history might with reason assume to do; but consider the Universal History, and then tell us,—when did burdock and plantain sprout first?”
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