Polymer-derived SiOC Replica of Material Extrusion-based 3-D Printed Plastics

TL;DR

This paper explores using affordable FFF 3-D printing to create polymer-derived ceramic skins by surface coating and pyrolysis, expanding the accessibility of ceramic additive manufacturing.

Contribution

It demonstrates a novel surface coating method for FFF 3-D printed polymers to produce ceramic skins, enabling lower-cost ceramic additive manufacturing.

Findings

All tested filaments successfully produced <100 micron ceramic skins.

Mass and volume changes during coating and pyrolysis were quantified.

Different polymer precursors have distinct advantages and disadvantages.

Abstract

A promising method for obtaining ceramic components with additive manufacturing (AM) is to use a two-step process of first printing the artifact in polymer and then converting it to ceramic using pyrolysis to form polymer derived ceramics (PDCs). AM of ceramic components using PDCs has been demonstrated with a number of high-cost techniques, but data is lacking for fused filament fabrication (FFF)-based 3-D printing. This study investigates the potential to use the lower-cost, more widespread and accessible FFF-based 3-D printing of PDCs. Low-cost FFF machines have a resolution limit set by the nozzle width, which is inferior to the resolutions obtained with expensive SLA or SLS AM systems. To match the performance a partial PDC conversion is used here, where only the outer surface of the printed polymer frame is converted to ceramic. Here the FFF-based 3-D printed sample is coated with a preceramic polymer and then it is converted into the corresponding PDC sample with a high temperature pyrolysis process. A screening experiment is performed on commercial filaments to obtain ceramic 3-D prints by surface coating both hard thermoplastics: poly lactic acid (PLA), polycarbonate (PC), nylon alloys, polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and co-polyesters; and flexible materials including: flexible PLA, thermoplastic elastomer and thermoplastic polyurethane filaments. Mass and volume changes were quantified for the soaking and pyrolysis steps to form a hollow ceramic skin. All 3-D printing materials extruded at 250 microns successfully produced ceramics skins of less than 100 microns. Details on the advantages and disadvantages of the different 3-D printing polymer precursors are discussed for this processing regime. The results are analyzed and discussed in order to provide guidance for more widespread application of AM of PDCs.