Asynchronous densification of zirconia ceramics formed by stereolithographic additive manufacturing

Stereolithography has been proven as a feasible approach to make crack-free ceramic macrostructure with customized designs, but the microstructure, especially pore structure remains to be tailored more precisely for better performance, where the sintering protocol and related densification characteristics could play a vital role as the slurry preparation and debinding protocol do. Herein we report a phenomenon named “asynchronous densification”, that is, the surface region of zirconia ceramics formed by stereolithographic additive manufacturing would be densified prior to the bulk at 1200°C during the conventional pressureless sintering in air. The cause of this asynchronism is unclear but supposed to be correlated with low packing density, high sintering activity, poor thermal conduction of ceramics and impurities. Early densification of the surface may have negative effects towards ceramic components with more homogeneous microstructure, suppressed pore coalescence and limited grain growth, and therefore needs to be better controlled through optimization in sintering protocol.