Additive manufacturing of Proton-Conducting Ceramics by robocasting with integrated laser postprocessing

A hybrid system combining robocasting and NIR laser postprocessing has been designed to fabricate layers of mixed proton-electron conducting BaLaCoFeO ceramic. The proposed manufacturing technique allows for the control of the geometry and microstructure and shortens the fabrication time to a range of a few minutes. Using 5 W laser power and a scanning speed of 500 mm·s, sintering of a round-shaped layer with an 8 mm radius was performed in less than 2 s. The single phase of the final product was confirmed by X-ray diffraction. Various ceramic-to-polymer weight ratios were tested, showing that various porosities of microstructures of ∼30 - 35 % and ∼19 % can be obtained with 2:1 and 4:1 loading respectively.