Densification and rheological behaviors of 8YSZ powders for Vat photopolymerization-based additive manufacturing

Vat photopolymerization additive manufacturing technology allows the shaping of ceramic structures with limitless opportunities in terms of design freedom, structural resolution, and improving processing speed while reducing cost and wastage. The quality of a final product is influenced by the raw materials and processing routes. The particle size distribution of ceramic powders significantly affects ceramic slurry's rheology and cure behaviour as well as the densification process during sintering. This work studies the rheological properties of slurries prepared from 8 mol.% yttria-stabilized zirconia powders with various particle size distributions and densification of green bodies prepared from these suspensions. The suspension with a narrow particle size distribution showed a non-Newtonian behavior with a viscosity of >1 Pa s at a solid loading above 29 vol%, and a significant densification at a sintering temperature of 1400 °C. The viscosity of a suspension prepared from a powder with a wide particle size distribution was <1 Pa s in a solid loading range of 29–37 vol%. The higher cure depth at a lower exposure energy for slurry with coarse particles allowed a reduction of the printing time, while suspension with fine particles can be used for high-resolution printing with longer exposure time.