Designed extrudate for ceramic additive manufacturing

The objective of this thesis work was to design ceramic paste systems that assist in achieving a high theoretical density ( \u3e 95%) after deposition by a novel additive manufacturing process, i.e. Ceramic On-Demand Extrusion (CODE). The work is encompassed in five main sections: Sections 1 and 2 provide an introduction and literature review of relevant topics for the following sections of experimentation. Section 3 provides an analysis of a reaction chemistry to identify three discrete materials that could be combined via CODE and result in zirconium diboride (ZrB2) post-sintering. Section 4 describes the development of a high solids loading, aqueous yttria-stabilized zirconia paste. This material was identified as the next viable technical ceramic system after alumina for addition to the CODE portfolio. Section 5 details the use of sol-synthesized pre-mullite composite powder to densify stoichiometric mullite at modest temperatures. Section 6 provides a conclusion to the research results provided in the preceding three sections, as well as future work outlined in Section 7 --Abstract, page iii