Cordierite honeycomb structural body and its production process

摘要

There is provided a cordierite honeycomb structural body that allows the thickness of the cell walls to be reduced and heat capacity to be decreased by improving the fluidity of the molding material when passing through a mold for extrusion molding while maintaining the shape retention of the molding material. A water-soluble cellulose ether is used as a binder that is added to a cordierite-converted starting material. This water-soluble cellulose ether contains methoxyl groups substituted for the cellulose hydroxyl groups within the range of a substitution rate of 27.5 to 31.5%, does not contain hydroxypropoxyl groups and hydroxyethoxyl groups in an amount greater than the amount of unavoidable impurities (0.1 wt %), and has a viscosity in a 2 wt % aqueous solution at 20° C. of less than 8000 centipoise. As a result of adding this water-soluble cellulose ether in an amount of 3 wt % to 10 wt % relative to the amount of the cordierite-converted starting material, frictional resistance is decreased allowing improvement of fluidity while maintaining adequate hardness of the molding material.