Fabrication of porous PZT ceramics using micro-stereolithography technology

Abstract Based on micro-stereolithography (μSL) additive manufacturing (AM) followed by the use of the burnable plastic sphere (BURPS) technique, we present the fabrication of porous lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics. A printing slurry was prepared by mixing photocurable ceramic suspensions with various contents of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) as a pore-forming agent (PFA). We found that the cure depth increased gradually with increasing PMMA content. The sintered PZT ceramics exhibited a porous microstructure of predominantly spherical pores formed by PMMA, with sizes ranging from ~15 to 35 μm. The porosity of the PZT ceramics increased from 11.3% to 21.9%, corresponding to a decrease in the density from 6.92 to 6.09 g/cm3 due to the increasing PMMA content. As the porosity increased, the acoustic impedance decreased from 24.4 to 12.6 MRayls (106 kg/m2 s). The porous PZT ceramic with 5 wt% PMMA exhibited superior dielectric and piezoelectric properties (d33 = 525 pC/N, er = 2417, tanδ = 0.04) that were comparable to those of ceramics fabricated by conventional methods. These results suggest that μSL technology is a viable alternative for fabricating porous PZT ceramic components, especially pieces with complex geometric structures.