A Novel ZrO₂ Ceramic Suspension for Ceramic Stereolithography

Stereolithography have been widely applied in multiple fields. In this paper, we developed a highly filled, low viscosity stereolithography-based zirconia suspension, and successfully used to fabricate a complex shaped zirconia parts by DLP process. After debinding and sintering, the sintered bodies showed significant shrinkage, with the shrinkage between 27.28% and 29.64%.XRD, SEM and other methods were used to test the composition, microstructure and flexural strength. The XRD pattern shows that the crystalline phase of the part is the t-ZrO₂ phase, while SEM characterization revealed that the sintered bodies were composed of submicron-grade grains. The relative density measured by the Archimedes' water displacement method was 96.59%.Additionally, the measured maximum flexural strength was 650MPa.These values are close to the structural properties of common zirconia ceramics prepared by conventional approaches. Hence, a novel DLP-stereolithography-based ZrO₂ suspension for the fabrication of complex and dense zirconia ceramic parts has been proposed in this work. (paper)