3D Printing of Infrared Transparent Ceramics via Material Extrusion

Fabrication of transparent ceramics with complex geometric structure by 3D printing break through the limitations of traditional ceramic forming process, thus gained significant research interest. Till now, 3D printing transparent ceramics are limited to visible transparent systems. Herein, 3D printed infrared transparent 3Y-TZP (3 mol% yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia) ceramics are achieved for the first time by a material extrusion (MEX) technique. We developed an aqueous ceramic ink with high solid content up to 50 vol. % and excellent shear thinning properties (n = 0.1975) for MEX. The relative density up to 99.85% was obtained after de-binding and two-step sintering process including air pre-sintering and hot isostatic pressing (HIP). Such high relative density enables its high transparency (>70%) in the mid-infrared (3-5μm) region. The successful MEX printing of the dome cover is demonstrated by using this ceramic ink.